A Few Minutes
by narutoobsessedgurl
Summary: A few minutes can change anyone's life. And it certainly did for one What if it was Hizashi who was born first, just a few minutes before Hiashi? How would it change the Hyuga generations to come, and most importantly, the world? And who knows what's going to happen when you add a little blonde ball of sunshine to the mix? Anything could happen! Sasuke x Fem!Naru
1. The Day at the Park

A few minutes, can change someone's life. Whether you take the time to get a coffee, and drive down the road later than normal, avoiding an accident that could have left you paralyzed. Or you got lunch and the line was really long, and by the time you got back, your building had caught on fire, and you would have been there had the line been shorter.

A few minutes changed one person's life so dramatically, that it affected generations to come, yet no one had even known it...

"Tou-chan! Are you in here?" A young boy, the age of four called into his house. "Tou-chan? Kaa-san?" He said, sticking his head into the kitchen.

He saw his mother cooking in there, her long brown hair falling just past her shoulders. She turned and smiled.

"Neji-kun. Just sit at the table, your lunch is almost done." She said.

"Thanks Kaa-san! Ne, where is Tou-chan?" Neji asked, seating himself at the table.

"Oh, he's going to get Auntie and Uncle, as well as your cousin. We're going to eat lunch with them, so if you need to, change." She said.

"No, I'm fine Kaa-san, but do we have to? Hinata never talks to me. The lunches are so boring. Can't I go play with Sasuke instead? Me and him actually have fun." Neji complained.

"Neji-kun, I know you have fun with Sasuke-kun, but Hinata-chan is fun too. She's just shy. Maybe you can help break her out of her shell." His mom said.

"Whatever." Neji said.

This was so annoying! Not only did he have to eat lunches or dinner with his boring cousin, but since he was the heir he had to deal with dinner with different head family members too! And they just had egotistical kids that thought they were better than him. When he became clan head, he was going to put a stop to this torture! Why couldn't he just go have fun with Sasuke? At least his dad had made sure to become close with the Uchiha clan, so he had an interesting friend!

"So Hizashi, how is Neji's training going?" Hiashi asked as he and his older brother were walking into the main house.

"Great. It seems he has the most developed Byakugan yet, according to his description, he can see chakra points! I just asked him what he saw as usual, but he described chakra points even though he has no idea what they are. He has the motions down for the basic training already. He seems to be the most promising heir yet." Hizashi said. "How about Hinata?"

"Well, it's not so great for her. She stumbles and does the wrong movements at the wrong times, and her Byakugan seems a bit weak. She's quite far away from where Neji is." Hiashi said. "It seems that fate decided that you should be born first for a reason brother, Neji seems to be more suited than Hinata for the next clan head."

"Well, ever think that fate might have made me born first because I was the better of us?" Hizashi asked.

Hiashi looked at his brother and smiled slightly. "Nope."

"Brat." Hizashi said, rolling his eyes.

"Lord Hizashi, your wife says that lunch is prepared and ready to serve." Said a woman that had come up to them.

"Thank you. Shall we, brother?" Hizashi asked.

"Of course." Hiashi said, following his clan leader into the dining room.

Hizashi smiled and went over to the head of the table, sitting there with his wife on one side and his son on the other. He ruffled Neji's hair, earning a smile out of the young boy. Hizashi loved that. His father had been rather cold to him, so he wanted to be better with Neji. It helped that his son had such talent, so he didn't have to be strict to make sure he got better. All he had to do was give him lessons and he was fine, so he was able to love him without the elders making a big deal about it. He just wanted Neji to be a nice Hyuga, one that wasn't arrogant and made bonds with others.

He watched as Hiashi took a seat at the other side of the table, and his wife, Hana, took the seat next to his own wife, Kyoko. Hinata then took the seat next to Neji, looking shy at even being around her own family.

The lunch was served, Kyoko taking the time to serve everyone herself. And they ate, not much talking was done, and it was mostly between Hizashi and Hiashi or Kyoko and Hana.

When they were mostly done, he noticed that Neji looked a bit excited. Hell, he was practically bouncing in his seat. Hizashi was curious, but didn't ask, he would know soon enough.

"Tou-chan? May I be excused?" He asked.

"Yes Neji." He said.

The boy was up and running in a split second, he raised an eyebrow and heard Kyoko laugh.

"You better change young man! Don't go ruining your good clothes, change into your play clothes!" She called after her son.

"Okay!" He yelled back., and they quickly heard a door close.

"So, what's he all excited about?" Hizashi asked, turning to his wife.

"Mikoto is taking him and Sasuke to the park today." She said, getting up herself. "I'm going as well, don't want anything to happen to my son without me there, now do I?"

"Meaning you want to see him meet a girl outside of the clan for the first time?" Hizashi asked, smiling lightly.

"Maybe. Well, I'm going to make sure he actually changes. See you later." She said, kissing her husband lightly and the forehead.

"See you." he said.

Kyoko was walking out of the room when she stopped and turned back to the people in the room. "Ne, Hana, why don't you take Hinata to the park with us? I'm sure she would have fun, Neji and Sasuke seem to be excited."

"That sounds like a great idea, Hinata hasn't seemed to have gotten to the park yet. Hinata-chan, why don't you go change quickly?" Hana said, standing and having Hinata stand as well. The girl walked out and went towards her house to go change, accompanied by her mother.

* * *

"Kaa-san, why do we have to wait?" Neji asked, standing next to his mother at he main gate of the Hyuga compound, dressed in a brown t-shirt and black cargo shorts as well as black sandals. "I want to go to the park, and we're losing time!"

"I know honey, I know. Oh! There they are! Hana! Over here!" Kyoko called, waving her hand. "Hinata and Hana are joining in for the trip to the park."

"Okay." Neji said, knowing whining about how it was supposed to just be Sasuke and him would get him no where.

They walked to the Uchiha, where they met up with Sasuke and Mikoto. Sasuke and Neji ran ahead, talking and playing, while the women stayed behind, and Hinata hiding behind her mother's leg.

"So, who's that girl that came with you?" Sasuke asked Neji.

"Oh, she's my cousin. My kaa-san suddenly invited her to come at the last moment. I don't even really like her, she's to shy and she never wants to play, so she's kinda boring." Neji said.

"Is she even gonna do anything at the park?" Sasuke asked.

"Who knows? Maybe." Neji said.

"Look! There it is!" Sasuke yelled, pointing to the park that was now in sight.

The two boys ran up ahead, the women walking leisurely behind them. They were simply chatting and laughing. Upon reaching the park, Neji and Sasuke were already involved in a game of tag with a few other boys.

One had scruffy brown hair, a big smile with sharp canines, and red marks on his cheeks, obviously an Inuzuka. A boy with black hair that was tied up into a small ponytail at the back of his head, with a lazy look to him, Nara. Another was an overweight boy with brown hair that was munching on a bag of chips. Akimichi. And then there was another boy with longer, slick, black hair and huge eyebrows.

Hana looked around and spotted a girl with pink hair and another with blonde hair sitting in the sand box and playing. She crouched next to her daughter.

"Hinata, why don't you go play with those two girls over there? They seem nice enough." Hana suggested. Her daughter just shook her head and held onto her pant leg tighter. "Why not?"

"W-W-well t-they j-just s-s-seem a-a bit s-s-scary." Hinata stuttered out. "I-I've n-never just g-gone u-up to t-t-talk to s-someone b-before." She held onto her mother's pant leg tightly and hid behind her.

Hana sighed, she couldn't make Hinata make friends, but she wanted her daughter to. She looked up and saw Mikoto and Kyoko talking about their sons and were watching them talk and interact and play with some of the other children. Where had the confidence that was in her brother-in-law's son gotten lost in her own daughter?

"Let's play hide and seek!" One of the boys suggested.

"Yeah!" The others chorused.

One of them looked over to the other girls. "Ne, Ino, Sakura, wanna play too?" He asked.

"Sure!" They said, standing up and brushing the sand off themselves and going over to the group of boys.

"Hinata, why don't you go play with them?" Hana said to her daughter. Hinata shook her head pushed her face into her pant leg again.

The others ran off to find a hiding place as Neji covered his eyes and counted. After reaching 30, he went off to find the others. He looked in some of the bushes over by the edge of the park, and went a little bit into the forest. While he was looking around, he heard something. He turned to face that way, whens something collided into him.

"Please! Please help me!" A small voice squeaked.

A moment later, a woman burst through the thicket with a frying pan in hand. Neji, just acting on instinct, forced some chakra into his palms and hit the woman in the leg and stomach a few times. The woman screamed and quickly ran away.

He turned around and got a good look at whatever ran into him and saw a girl with long blonde hair that hung down to her waist. She had deep cerulean eyes that seemed to look right through his own pale white eyes. She wore a black tank top and orange shorts, with black sandals. Cuts littered her legs, small, but still distinct, she looked rather frightened, something he felt didn't look right on her.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

The girl looked at him and nodded her head. He kneeled in front of her an grabbed her face. "Are you sure? You don't seem very well."

The girl had a blush but answered anyways. "Well, that woman, she was trying to attack me."

"Why?"

"I don't know. After I spilled my juice on the floor, she yelled something about me an ungrateful demon, and then she suddenly just started trying to hit me with a frying pan! I just don't know what happened!" She said, and flung herself onto him, crying her eyes out on his shirt.

"Look, it's okay.. uhhh... I didn't get your name." Neji said.

"Naruko. Uzumaki Naruko. Yours?" She replied quietly, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Neji. Hyuga Neji. Why don't you come with me? I'm sure my kaa-san can help with the cuts on your legs. How did you get them?" He asked, leading her out of the shrubs.

"Oh, I tripped a couple of times while running away from the lady, and I tripped over and onto a bunch of thorns one of the times." She replied, her eyes still red and puffy, but the waver in her voice and the tears seemed to have disappeared.

"Oh, I'm sorry, but I'm sure my kaa-san can fix it." He said, leading her to his mom. "Kaa-san, I met this girl in the woods, and she was running away from this mean lady, and now she has all these cuts. Can you help her?"

"Oh no! What happened? Why would anyone hurt such cute little girl like you?" Kyoko said, digging some napkins out of her purse and wetting some of them in the water fountain. She kneeled before the blonde and started dabbing at the cuts. "What's your name sweetie?"

"Uzumaki Naruko." She said.

Kyoko stopped dabbing for a moment, her eyes widening, but she quickly schooled her face and continued cleaning the cuts. 'Uzumaki eh? How could I have not recognized it earlier? The container of the kyuubi, of course someone was chasing after her. Poor girl, without Kushina or Minato around, she can't stand a chance. I had always assumed she'd been adopted by someone, but apparently not. Well, I can't just let my old best friend's daughter live in the orphanage now can I? Hmmm, I wonder what Hizashi will think when I bring an extra child home. No matter, don't worry Kushi-chan, I'll look after your daughter.' She thought, smiling lightly.

"Ne, who was chasing you Naruko-chan? Do you know?" She asked, throwing away the napkins and digging through her purse to find some band-aids.

"Yeah. It was my stupid caretaker." She said, gaining a scowl on her face for her obvious dislike for the woman.

"Oh honey, I won't let you go back there okay? You're gonna come home with us tonight, if that's okay with you." Kyoko said.

Naruto gained a surprised expression, and you could see the hope in the girl's eyes. "Really?"

"Well of course. Now, before we go home, would you like to play with Neji and some of his friends?" She asked, smiling.

"Yeah!" The little blonde cheered.

"Oops... I'm supposed to be looking for them, since we're playing hide and seek." Neji said, remembering the game.

"Since I delayed you, can I help you look?" Naruko asked.

"Sure, I could use some extra help. Let's go!" He said, and the two children ran off to play.

"Hinata." Kyoko said, still looking after her own child and Naruko run off. "It's not too late to join you know."

"N-no t-t-thank you." She stuttered out, becoming pink and hiding behind her mom.

"Okay, just wanted to offer." Kyoko said, patting the girl on the head and resuming her conversation with Hana and Mikoto again.

* * *

They arrived back at the Hyuga compound when it was time for dinner. Hizashi had offered to cook since is son wanted to stay at the park for as long as possible, and he was happy to see his son excited for social interactions, since Hyugas tended to be loners by choice.

Needless to say, when his wife came back with the blonde girl that looked so much like his dear passed friend Minato, he was pretty surprised.

"Kids, why don't you go wash up before dinner?" Kyoko said. Both children nodded and went to the bathroom to clean up.

"Alright, who's the child?" Hizashi asked.

"It's Uzumaki Naruko." She said.

"Ahhh... so I was right, Minato and Kushina's kid. But wasn't she adopted?" He asked, setting the table.

"I assumed so, but it appears that's not the case... Hizashi-" She started to say.

"Let me guess, you want to adopt her?" He asked, smiling slightly.

"If you would agree then yes, I would love to." She said, putting on a face she knew always made her husband melt.

"Oh alright, I wouldn't mind having Minato's kid around, I miss that man." He said. He and Minato had been on the same genin team, and had been rather close, unlike Minato was with Hiashi. The two seemed to detest each other for some odd reason.

"Ah, but what if she turns out more like Kushi-chan as a kid?" Kyoko asked, smiling.

"Then god help us all." Hizashi said.


	2. First Day

Neji awoke to being jostled around, just barely peaking through his eyes, he saw the expanse of stars before him.

'I'm... outside?' He thought, then heard voices.

"Who's the girl?" He heard.

"I'm not sure, but she must be important if she's in the kid's room. Let's take her too." The voice whispered back.

He was able to see the man pick up Naruko in his peripheral vision. He jumped out of his room and they started running. Neji shut his eyes tightly and thought.

'Tou-chan! Please! Help me and Naruko! We can't beat these guys!' He screamed in his mind.

Hiashi exited the building and saw the men running with his children. He sped forward and hit them both with jyuuken, catching the children before they fell with the men.

Neji opened his eyes and hugged his father tightly.

"Tou-chan!" He exclaimed.

"Shhh... Son, it's fine. Don't worry, you're safe. Why don't you and Naruko sleep in kaa-san and I's room tonight?" He whispered to his son. He felt Neji nod against him and carried the two children inside, and put them to sleep in their bed.

* * *

"We will not allow Kumo to get hold of our clan head. Hizashi, Hiashi will take your place as a body double." One of the clan elders stated.

"NO! I won't let you kill my brother for my sake!" He yelled.

"Hizashi." he heard behind him, and felt a hand on his shoulder. "I'll do it." he said.

"Hiashi-"

"No Hizashi. I'm not doing this because the clan elders are forcing me to. I want to, I feel like I finally will get a choice, and I want to do it. I don't want to be protected by you anymore, I'll gladly take your place." Hiashi said.

"But, you have Hinata!" He said.

"Yes, and you have Neji. And Naruko now I believe? Plus, it's not exactly a secret that Kyoko is pregnant again. You have three children you must look after, and you're the clan head, but most importantly, you're my brother. I'm doing this, Hana will be able to handle Hinata on her own." Hiashi said.

"But-"

"No buts. I'm doing it." He said, and stepped forward to take his place as Hizashi's double.

* * *

"Breakfast!" Was called out, the voice echoing through the big house. The sounds of rapid footsteps echoed off the walls and soon, two kids slid into their seats.

"Kaa-san! Did you get my notebooks?" Neji asked, shoveling in his breakfast.

"Yes honey, don't worry." Kyoko said, picking up the two kids bags and dropping them next to each of their owners.

"What about mine Kaa-san? And did you get the colored pencils? The special edition?" Naruko asked, shoveling in her food as well.

"Yes Naruko-chan, I got the special colored pencils. Don't worry, you two are going to have a great first day of school." She said, ruffling their hair.

Both children grumbled about their hair, Neji smoothed out his hair and Naruko fixed her own.

Neji had put on traditional Hyuga garb, dark brown shorts with a tan shirt that had attachments on the front. He had his hair in a VERY low hanging pony tail, that was tied off at the very end of his hair. He held his hair back with a headgear, but still displayed his forehead proudly, though while most main branch Hyugas still wore it that way after graduating, he would put his hitai-ite on his forehead.

Over the years, Naruko's hair had changed from blonde to her mother's fiery red. She had it grown half way down her back, and had tied it in a braid, except for the bangs, which she kept to the sides of her face, how she had been told her real mother did. She was sporting a pastel yellow kimono with fishnet sleeves and black biker shorts. It had the Hyuga Symbol on the back, with the Uzumaki swirl on the shoulders, to show her loyalty to Konoha and to her former clan.

The two picked up their bags and got ready to go just in time to see their little brother, Koji, come in and sit down for breakfast, shortly followed by their little sister, Hoshiko.

"Koji, Hoshiko, I'm going to walk Naruko and Neji to school. Tou-chan will be out in a second to give you guys breakfast." She said, kissing them on the head.

"Come on Kaa-san! We're gonna be late!" Naruko complained from the door.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." She said, waving them off and grabbing her purse before walking them out. Once they got to the Hyuga compound gates, she waved goodbye to the guards as her kids skipped on ahead excitedly.

Neji was telling Naruko about his previous year there, and how much stuff she was going to learn and how much fun she was going to have. They were chatting about people in Neji's grade, and how she was going to meet them, and how she was going to make friends with people in her grade.

Kyoko smiled at how social her children were, even though Neji was closer to his sister and Sasuke, he was still friends with people in school, which was more than most Hyugas. She looked behind her to see Hinata walking roughly 100 yards behind them with her mom, not coming to hang out with Neji and Naruko.

The girl had distanced herself even more from their family since her father died, though she couldn't blame the girl, Hizashi and Hiashi looked so similar. But Hana had gotten over it, and they were still good friends, but as much as they tried, Hinata would not make any effort to make friends with Naruko and Neji, so they hadn't done it either, sensing she didn't want to be friends.

"Look! Look! There it is!" Naruko yelled, grabbing Neji's hand. "Come on!"

They both ran towards the academy and Kyoko ran after them. The two kids stopped in front of the academy, Neji looking at Naruko while Naruko looked at it with owlish eyes, blinking a lot.

"WOW! It's so cool!" She said.

"Isn't it?" Neji asked, chuckling.

"Now now, you both have to get to your classes. Neji, will take you to yours first since you know how it works, and then I'll take Naruko to hers, okay?" Kyoko said.

"Okay Kaa-san!" They said.

Kyoko led them through the school until they found Neji's classroom. He had Honoki-sensei, who was known as one of the nicest teachers in the school. He was in his twenties and had spiky brown hair and an awesome smile. He made the academy fun, and cared about the kids, and Neji was excited when he got him the year before.

"Hi Honoki-sensei!" Neji said as he got to the door.

"Ahh, Neji. You got so big over the summer! You ready for another year?" He asked.

"Yeah!" The boy exclaimed.

"And who are these fine ladies?" He asked, smiling at Naruko and Kyoko.

"That's my Kaa-san, and that's my imouto, Naruko-chan. She's starting this year, she's really excited!" He said.

"Ahhh, so your imouto is joining the academy? Make sure you protect her from all of the boys." he said.

"Don't worry sensei, I already was gonna protect her!" He said. Then he hugged Naruko. "Have a good day imouto. Make friends!"

"Don't worry about that Nii-san, people love me!" She said, smiling hugely.

"Yeah, sure. See you at lunch!" He said, hugging his mom, then running into the room.

"Take good care of him Honoki." Kyoko said.

"Don't worry, I always do Lady Hyuga. Make sure this little one gets to class on time." he said, looking at Naruko.

"He's right Kaa-san, let's go! I wanna see my class!" Naruko said, tugging on Kyoko's hand.

"Okay honey. Goodbye Honoki-sensei." She said, leading Naruko around the school until they got to her classroom.

They opened the door and saw a few people still with their parents, and then quite a few kids on their own, in groups and talking to other kids.

Kyoko walked up to the teacher, holding Naruko's hand while the girl looked around eagerly.

"Hello! I'm Iruka-sensei, and who are you two?" He asked, looking and smiling at the pair.

"Hello Iruka-sensei, I'm Kyoko Hyuga and this is Naruko." She said, putting her hand on her daughter's head.

"I'm gonna be the best ninja ever, ttebayo!" She exclaimed, putting a fist up in the air.

"Well, we'll see about that now won't we? But I'm happy to see such a young kunoichi-to-be excited about her profession." Iruka said.

"Yeah! Kaa-san, can I go talk to the other kids?" She asked, hope evident in her crystal blue eyes.

"Sure honey, go ahead, I'm going to be talking to your teacher." She said.

"Yay!" She cheered before running up the stairs to talk to her peers.

Naruko ran up to the back table. "Kiba! Shikamaru! Choji!" She called out, and the boys looked towards her direction.

"Wow! Naruko, you're in our class too? That's awesome!" Kiba said. Akamaru barked in agreement from the top of Kiba's head.

"Yeah Naruko, it's awesome! Hey, do you want some chips?" Choji asked.

"Sure Cho, thanks." She said, taking a handful of chips. "Ne, Shikamaru, why are you so quiet?"

"Tch. It's just that I see one of my dad's friend's kid is in our class too. And she's troublesome. Always complaining about stuff." Shikamaru said, before yawning and putting his head down on the desk.

"Ne, where am I supposed to sit if you're all sitting together?" Naruko said, crossing her arms.

"I don't know, can't you find your own seat?" Kiba said.

"Mou, but I don't know anyone else!" Naruko complained.

Kiba started to say, "Just find your own sea-"

"Wait, is that Sasuke? Sasuke! SASUKE!" She called out, before racing down the stairs and jumping onto the boy.

Sasuke wasn't expecting this and stumbled forward before falling. He looked up in annoyance until he saw who was on his back.

"Naruko? You're in my class?" He asked.

"Apparently! Ne, Ne! Sit with me!" She said.

"Sure, but can you get off me first?" He asked.

"Ooh, right." She said, getting off of him and helping him up. "Aren't you excited!? We finally get to start our paths to becoming ninja!"

"Hn, I guess." Sasuke said.

"Don't be so emotionless Sasuke!" Naruko complained, punching him in the arm.

"Sasuke," Mikoto said, "why don't you and Naruko sit down? I can talk to your teacher without you."

"Thank you Mikoto-san!" Naruko said, dragging Sasuke to an empty table. They sat down and started talking, and before they knew it, everyone in their class had arrived.

"Now." Iruka said. "I'm your teacher, you can call me Iruka-sensei. The boys and the girls will be split up for the first half of the day, so they can go to their respective classes, then we will join together again fir the second half of the day."

Naruko stood up immediately. "What!? Why? Do you think that girls aren't as strong or as smart as boys? That's not fair! Girls are just as equally good shinobi as boys, and we should get the same treatment as them!"

"Naruko is it?" Iruka said, getting a nod from Naruko, "we're not saying that boys are better than girls, it's just that you need to learn different skill sets than the boys. Therefore, the boys will be getting different classes for the first half of the day, okay?"

"Fine." Naruko grumbled, sitting back down.

"Now, all girls, please follow Mina-sensei to where you will be going." Iruka said.

All of the girls stood up and followed a nice looking woman out. She was roughly 5'6, with bright orange hair cut into a bob, and was wearing a tight, black, t-shirt with blood red shorts, and blood red fingerless gloves and black shinobi sandals.

"Now girls, my name is Mina-sensei." She said one they reached a field. "Today, will be your first lesson of flower arranging. To be able to be a good kunoichi, you need to be able to fit in with what common women do should you go undercover. This is one of the many things you will learn that will make you able to do that."

Naruko raised her hand, and Mina-sensei smiled. "Yes?" she asked.

"I LOVE your hair!" She exclaimed. "Orange is my favorite color!"

Mina-sensei laughed. "Well, I love your hair too. Red's a very pretty color on you." She said. "Now, anymore questions?" No one raised their hand. "Good, go ahead and start."

Girls scattered everywhere and started picking flowers, Naruko moved over to a patch of Klondike Cosmos (orange cosmos), and started picking some when she overheard a conversation.

"Hah! Does the little princess not want to get her clothes dirty?"

"Just because she's one of those Hyuga freaks she thinks she's all that!"

"I-I-It's n-not l-l-like t-that."

"Yeah right! And look at her! Blue hair? Who has blue hair!?"

Then she heard a chorus of laughter. Naruko felt anger flare up in her and grabbed some flowers off the ground and stomped over to the group.

"Hey!" Naruko yelled. "Why are you making fun of her? What did she do to you?"

"She thinks just because she's a Hyuga that she's better than us!" a girl with bright purple hair cut really weirdly said.

"When did she say that? I know Hinata, and she would never say something like that!" Naruko stood up for her cousin.

"Oh shut up and get out of it, TOMATO!" One of the girls yelled.

Naruko clenched her fist, crushing the flowers in her hands and her face falling to the ground. She bit her lip and shut her eyes tight.

"Oh, look at tomato now! She can't stand up for herself now!" One of the girls yelled.

Naruko looked back up and narrowed her eyes at the girl. Her eyes flashed red for a split second and then she growled.

"Shut up!" She said, throwing some of the surviving flowers stem first, into the girls' mouths. They all choked and they fell back onto the ground. Naruko looked at Hinata who was staring up at her, eyes wide and her mouth open slightly.

"Are you okay Hinata?" She asked quietly. Hinata nodded, and Naruko smiled and nodded back at her. "Good."

Then Naruko walked away and continued her flower picking, replacing all of the broken flowers for other ones, and picking some Albion Basin Wild Flowers (white flowers) that would look good with her cosmos. She up and saw two girls that were sitting together, that she had played with once at the park, one had pink hair while the other was a blonde. She went up to them and sat in front of them, smiling.

"Hey, I'm Naruko. Who are you guys?" She asked.

"I'm Ino, and this is Sakura." The blonde one said. "It's nice to meet you, I like your outfit."

"Thanks! I like yours too, especially the shirt." Naruko said.

"Oh right, you were the one who said orange was your favorite color earlier today." Ino said, putting a finger on her chin. "How's the flowers search going?"

"Good, I already got my bouquet ready, how about you two?" Naruko asked.

"Well, I'm trying to help Sakura over here with hers, wanna help?" Ino said.

"Sure! Does she have a base flower?" Naruko asked.

"No, not yet." Sakura said quietly, speaking up for the first time.

"Well, why don't you use a pink flower for the base? That way it can match your hair." Naruko suggested.

"Oh yeah! What if she uses milkweed? That's a pretty flower!" Ino said.

"And then she can add some white cosmos to tie it together!" Naruko said.

"That sound good to you Sakura? Well, actually, we should probably let you choose huh?" Ino said.

"Oh.. yeah." Sakura said, and got up and started picking flowers she thought would go together, after getting Naruko and Ino's approval. She stopped her work and looked at them.

'Ino and Naruko are so pretty, and they're so good with their clothes too. And Ino was awesome when she stood up for me earlier today, and I saw Naruko do the same for that other girl. They're so good with their shuriken skills already, and we haven't even started practice! And I know Ino's already good with ninjutsu... how could I ever be a kunoichi, when I'm nothing like them?' Sakura thought.

"Ne, Sakura?" Naruko asked, tearing Sakura away form her thoughts. "Why did you stop? Did you change your mind about the flowers?"

"Uh, no, just thinking." She said.

"Hey, know what would be fun? If we played together this afternoon." Ino said.

"Sure, that's sounds like fun!" Naruko said.

"Umm, okay." Sakura said.

"C'mon Sakura, be more excited!" Ino said.

"Right! It's gonna be fun, be happy!" Naruko said.

"Girls! Girls!" Mina-sensei called out, and all of the girls gathered around her. "Now, they decided that the class above you guys was too small, so we'll be combing the classes from now on."

Naruko's eyes widened and she squealed. "Yay! My nii-san is gonna be in our class then!" She said to Sakura and Ino.

"Really? Who's your nii-san?" Sakura asked.

"Only the bestest brother in the whole world! You get to meet him this afternoon!" Naruko said. "Plus you get to meet my nii-san's friends, one being this awesome girl named Tenten!"

"Cool! Is she nice?" Ino said.

"She's so nice and pretty and awesome! You guys are gonna love her!" Naruko exclaimed. "Oh look! There she is now! TENTEN!"

A girl with brown twin buns on her head looked over to where she was called and smiled. She was wearing a pink coat with yellow clasps holding it together, over blue pants and classic shinobi sandals. She walked over to them and smiled.

"Hey Naruko, who are these girls?" Tenten asked.

"Tenten, Ino and Sakura, Ino and Sakura, Tenten." Naruko said.

"It's nice to meet you." Ino said.

"Hi." Sakura said.

"I'm sooo glad that our classes are gonna join! My class is really small, and I'm not really friends with any of the girls in there." Tenten said.

"Girls, attention please!" Mina-sensei called out, since everyone had started talking again. "Now, we're going to be moving onto the next section. Housework!"

**With Neji**

His mind was boggling, it seemed like a normal day. The class had just come in and they had all started talking with each other, him talking to Lee and Tenten. Class had started and the girls had already left for their kunoichi class. They were doing woodworking, since they had to learn different professions for if they had to go undercover and get a job, they would be able to do many different things, when suddenly, this guy had called Honoki-sensei over and they talked. They were told they were going to be joining the class below them in studies, and right now, they were just walking down the hall.

"Neji, do you think we're really going to be mixed with the class below us?" Lee said.

"I don't see why not." Neji said.

"But, how are we going to control who knows what? Are we going to have to relearn what we learned last year or are they going to skip a year?" Lee asked.

"I don't know Lee. I don't know. But I'm happy that I'll be in the same class as my imouto, I can protect her easier this way." Neji said.

"We're going to be in Naruko's class?" Lee asked.

"Yep, isn't it great?" Neji said, smiling.

"Yeah! Naruko-chan is so youthful and she is quite funny!" Lee said.

They waked into the classroom and sat down, Neji taking a seat next to Sasuke and Lee next to him. They ended up still working on woodworking, since the teachers had been notified this may or may not happen, and had decided they would just teach the same lesson.

But Neji couldn't focus on the lesson, all he could think about was how fun it would be to be in a class with his imouto.


	3. The Rest of the Day

"Girls! We're going to break for lunch, and then we'll be joining with the boys for the rest of class." Mina-sensei said.

"Yay! I get to see nii-san!" Naruko said, clapping her hands.

"Ne, why don't we eat underneath that big tree?" Tenten suggested.

"Yeah! Let's go!" Ino said excitedly.

The girls ran over to the tree after retrieving their lunches. Naruko sat next to the right side of the tree and smiled, stroking the carvings in the wood.

"Hey, I remember this tree." She said.

"Really, what from?" Sakura asked.

"Its from what was probably one of the best days of my life." Naruko said fondly, remembering the day very clearly.

_Flashback_

"_Naruko, we need to ask you something." Hizashi said, sitting the girl down at the dining room table with his wife and son._

_Naruko gulped. She had been staying in their house for the past week or so and they hadn't said anything about it, they had just accepted her into the house. She remembered them taking Neji aside and talking to him while they were playing earlier that day. She couldn't help but wonder if they were kicking her out. _

_She dropped her eyes to the floor, and felt tears slowly start to build in her eyes, threatening to spill over and bring sobs with them._

_Nobody wanted her right? After all, so many people told her they hated her. Told her she was just a monster, and that she shouldn't exist. Others just backed away in fear, or grabbed their children and pulled them away from her. Even at the orphanage she was never treated the same as the other kids. If she screwed up at all, like spilling something on the floor, they beat her or chased her out._

"_Naruko, we want to talk about your stay here." Kyoko started nervously, not really sure how to ask a 3 year-old if she wanted to be adopted._

_Naruko stood up abruptly and wiped the tears that were now starting to fall. "You don't need to tell me to leave! I get it! No one wants me! I just wish you hadn't given me the hope of a family before crushing my dreams!" She yelled, then she ran out of the house, the family gaping behind her._

_Hizashi stood up, but Neji stood up and put a hand on his dad's._

"_Tou-chan. Let me go get her, okay?" He said, and Hizashi just nodded._

_Naruko ran as fast as her little legs could take her, her bare feet gathering up all the dirt possible as she stumbled around, her tears blocking her vision. She turned her head back and saw Neji chasing after her. They didn't need to send someone to confirm that she wasn't wanted!_

_She felt sobs rack her throat as she ran. She ran through the woods for what seemed like forever, but everytime she turned, Neji was still following her, panting as heavily as she was. _

_Naruko broke into a clearing that was filled with flowers and ran to the huge tree at the other side, and quickly climbed it, scraping up her feet, causing them to bleed. She sat on one of the branches and buried her face in her hands, crying her eyes out and letting loose sobs._

_Neji ran up to the tree and stood underneath it. He looked up at Naruko, who was sitting on one of the lower branches, and frowned at the fact that she was crying._

"_Naruko-chan! Come down!" He called up._

"_No!" She said, not looking up from her hands._

"_Naruko-chan, please! We don't want you to leave! We want you to be part of the family! Tou-chan and Kaa-san want you to be their musume, and I want you to be my imouto!" He said._

"_Don't trick me! That's just mean! Nobody wants a monster like me to be part of their family!" Naruko said._

"_You're not a monster! You're my friend! And I want you to be my nee-chan! Kaa-san and Tou-chan just wanted to ask you if you wanted to be part of the family! That's why they called me over too, they wanted to make sure I was okay with them adopting you! And I was excited for you to be my imouto! Please, Naruko, come down!" Neji begged._

_Naruko looked up from her hands and looked into Neji's eyes. "Really?" She asked in a small, sad voice._

"_Yes." He said calmly._

_Naruko sniffled and wiped her nose and eyes on her sleeve, before holding onto the tree and sliding down, Neji helping her at the bottom. She hugged onto him for dear life and he hugged her back, her sobbing into his shoulder and him patting her back._

_When Naruko finally quieted down, Neji looked around. He knew this was a training ground for Hyugas, and saw a couple of kunai on the ground. He picked one up and smiled._

"_Ne, Naruko. Let's carve our initials into this tree." Neji said, carving an NH into the tree for Neji Hyuga._

"_Why?" Naruko asked, being handed the kunai. She went up to the tree and looked at him carefully, before getting a nod and also carving an NH into the tree for Naruko Hyuga._

_Neji took the kunai back and threw it at the tree he had found it by, then looked back to her. "There, now as long as our initials are there you'll know you'll always be a part of our family, an official Hyuga! And that I'll always be here for you, and I'll always be by your side no matter what!"_

_They hugged again and Naruko sniffled again. "Thanks you... nii-san." She said._

"_No problem imouto, nii-san's always have to be there for there for their imoutos. It's our duty." Neji said. "Now, why don't we go back home and tell Kaa-san and Tou-chan your decision."_

_Naruko smiled lightly and gave a small nod. And they walked back to the Hyuga Compound together. This time, for the first time as brother and sister._

_Flashback End_

Naruko smiled and traced the initials with her fingers. She looked down at her sandwich and attacked it, who would have thought housework and flower arrangement would make someone so ravenous?

After the four were done eating, they stood up and walked over to the group of girls that were already gathered around Mina-sensei, and they were all lead back to the classroom.

The girls walked back into the classroom that had desks added to it over lunch, and started sitting down. Tenten, Ino, and Sakura sat down in one row while Naruko sat in the one in front of them. The other girls sat in various places around the classroom, and the boys started to filter in.

"Ne! Nii-san! Sasuke-kun! Come and sit with me!" Naruko called when the boys came into the room. The pair smiled and walked over to her and sat next to her, Neji sitting next to her and Sasuke next to him.

"Hey imouto, how was kunoichi class?" Neji asked as he sat down.

"Fine, I made some new friends!" Naruko said, grinning and turning to Ino and Sakura. "But how was the shinobi class? I bet it was a lot more fun."

"Eh, it was okay, we just did some woodworking." Neji said.

"Alright class! Settle down! Settle down!" Iruka called out. "Now, today, we will start by getting in front of the class and introducing ourselves. Let's start over there." Iruka said, pointing to Naruko, since she was sitting in the front row. The girl stood up and cleared her throat.

"Hey! My name's Naruko, Naruko Hyuga! I like my family, friends, training, ramen, and a certain tree. I hate orphanages, nasty villagers, and people who look down upon others for petty reasons. My hobbies include training, spending time with family and friends, and sitting on the Hokage Mountain. My dream is to become an established kunoichi, and the first ever female Hokage!" Naruko proclaimed.

Neji stood up after Naruko sat down. "My name is Neji Hyuga. I like training, my family, and my friends. I hate godawful women with pans, fangirls, the clan elders, and dinners with boring people in my clan. My hobbies include training, spending time with family and friends, sparring with Naruko, and reading. My dream is to unite the two branches of my clan into one and to become an Anbu."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I like playing with Neji and Naruko, my kaa-san, my nii-san, tomatoes, and training. I don't like fangirls, people who can't defend themselves, and annoying people. My hobbies include training, reading scrolls, and playing with my friends. My dream is to become a great shinobi." He said, before sitting down.

One by one, everyone got up and introduced themselves, and when they were all done, Iruka called attention to himself again.

"Now class, today, we will be learning geography." He said, pulling a map open. He told everyone to take out their notebooks and start drawing the map and labeling all of the countries, which he pointed out to all of them and described their climate, and talked about which ones had ninja in them, as well as which ones Konoha did business with and which ones Konoha had alliances with. He then transitioned to talking about the Chunin Exams, how countries would switch around to see who held them. He talked about how often they were, twice a year, and which countries usually came to participate the ones in Konoha. He also told them why everytime it was in a country, that country usually had the most participants, and why some sent more participants than others. They learned and learned and learned until they couldn't think anymore! And then they were assigned homework and given textbooks.

The bell rang loudly, letting the whole class give out a collective cheer. Kids started to get up and pushed in their chairs and run out, Iruka seeing them off.

Naruko, Neji, and Sasuke gathered their stuff and got up, pushing in their chairs. Naruko let out a huge sigh as she stretched.

"Nii-san, is school gonna be like this everyday?" Naruko asked.

"Pretty much, well, unless it's Friday. Those are the days we practice throwing and sparring as well as the obstacle course. Fridays are a lot more fun, trust me." Neji said.

"Mou, Mou! Wanna train when we get home? I wanna practice with my trench knives!" Naruko said, jumping up and down.

"Sure, the clearing?" He asked as they walked out, Sasuke coming along since he was heading the same direction.

"Yeah! That's where we went for kunoichi class today!" Naruko said.

"No fair, you got to go outside for class?" Sasuke said.

"Yeah! Mina-sensei said we always do! Well, unless we do housework too, which we did for part of today." Naruko said.

"Man, can I join kunoichi class?" Sasuke said jokingly.

Naruko and Neji laughed. "Sure, just pretend you're a girl from now on, Sasuke-chan!" Naruko teased.

"I'll pass." Sasuke said.

"Ne, Sasuke, why don't you train with us?" Neji suggested.

"Thanks, but I can't, I'm working on my fireball jutsu, and I need to do it over a lake." Sasuke said.

"Oh, okay. How about once you get it you train with us though?" Naruko suggested.

"Sure, that sounds fun." Sasuke said.

"Come on nii-san, Mina-sensei showed us a shortcut to the clearing, let's go! Bye Sasuke!" Naruko yelled, grabbing Neji's hand and running off with Neji, who yelled by to Sasuke too.

"Bye!" Sasuke yelled after them and continued on his way to the lake he practiced at.

Naruko and Neji practiced and practiced for hours, until they both collapsed on the ground. They panted heavily next to each other and turned their heads to look at each other, and they both laughed.

"Nii-san, why don't we go home before Kaa-san starts to worry." Naruko said.

"Probably a good idea." He said, getting up and helping Naruko up. They walked home and as they left the clearing, Naruko stole one last glance at her favorite tree, and they left.

They got home and Kyoko started fretting over their minor injuries, becoming worried about little things like scratches, while they both assured her they were fine.

They sat down for dinner after applying band-aids and healing cream, and their imouto, otouto, and tou-chan all sat down with them. They started digging into the meal and were happily chattering away.

Sasuke was running home.

'Kaa-san is gonna get mad because I stayed out so late.' He thought as he ran into the compound. 'Wait, why are all the lights out? It's not nearly bedtime.'

Sasuke ran into his house and walked through the halls, turning on the lights as he went.

"Kaa-san? Tou-chan?" He called out, making his way onto the porch. He walked to his parent's door and slid it open, and saw his parent's dead bodies on the floor.

"Kaa-san! Tou-chan!" He yelled, tears now freely streaming down his face. He heard chuckling behind him, and turned to see his brother in the street.

Sasuke ran into the street and Itachi jumped up onto a pole.

"Foolish little brother. Hate me, and grow stronger with that hate. Maybe one day, you'll be strong enough to beat me, but we're not anywhere near that day." Itachi said.

"Why!? WHY DID YOU KILL THEM!?" Sasuke yelled.

"Simple, I wanted to test my strength. Goodbye, little brother." Itachi said, and then disappeared.

"Hizashi-sama! Hizashi-sama!" A man yelled bursting into the dining room.

"What is it? Can't you see I'm trying to have dinner with my family?" Hizashi said.

"I'm sorry Hizashi-sama, but this is urgent! The Uchiha Clan has been massacred!" The servant yelled.

Everything went deathly silent in the room, everyone staring at the servant like she had two heads. Naruko felt tears go down her cheeks, she normally didn't like crying in front of people, but she didn't care right now, she stood up, wiping away her tears.

"No!" She screamed. "You're lying!"

"I'm not lying child, the Uchiha Clan has been massacred!" The servant said again.

"That can't be true! Sasuke-kun! Mikoto-san! They're not dead! They can't be dead!" She screamed, stomping her foot.

Neji took Naruko's hand in his. "Naruko-"

"No Neji! They're not dead! No one could take down the Uchiha Clan!" She screamed, hearing her own voice go hysteric.

"I'll check it out." Hizashi said, standing up. "Kyoko, we don't know who did this. Take the children to the cellar should someone attack our compound."

"Yes dear." Kyoko said, picking up Hoshiko and having the rest of her children follow her. They went down to the cellar where Kyoko bolted the door and turned back to her family. Good thing they had finished the cellar, so it was furnished.

Her kids all sat on the couch, Naruko crying her eyes out while Neji held her and Hoshiko and Koji just looked confused.

"Kaa-san, what's going on?" Hoshiko asked.

"We're not sure, it appears the Uchiha Clan has been massacred. We will stay down here until tou-chan decides it's safe though, okay?" Kyoko said.

"Okay." Hoshiko said.

'Now, I think we put toys down here so that the kids wouldn't freak out, and would focus on other things instead. Aahh! Here they are!' Kyoko thought as she pulled a large toy box out of closet.

"Kids, you want some toys?" She asked.

"Yeah!" Koji and Hoshiko cheered, before opening up the box and starting to play.

Kyoko went over to her other two children and sat on the arm of the couch, putting a hand on Neji's head and brushing the hair back from Naruko's face.

"K-Kaa-san... A-A-are t-they r-really d-d-dead?" Naruko sobbed.

"I'm afraid so honey." Kyoko said sadly.

Naruko then started a batch of even heavier sobs, her tears coating her hands, and Neji even starting to cry too. He couldn't stand this! Who could have done this? How could someone kill all of those innocent people?

"Kids, why don't you do something to get your mind off of it?" Kyoko suggested.

"Yeah, why don't we do our homework?" Neji suggested.

Naruko nodded and lifted her face. It was red, her eyes red and puffy, and there were tear stains on her face. She wiped away her tears, which were quickly replaced by new ones, but her sobs started to quiet.

Neji and Naruko worked on homework while Hoshiko and Koji played, with Kyoko content to watch them and help them with their homework when needed.

A servant knocked on the door later, and brought them pillows and blankets, telling Kyoko that Hizashi would be working through the night.

Kyoko sighed and brought the stuff downstairs. She brought some cots that they had stored down there out of the closet and unfolded them, and put the kids to bed, tucking them in and kissing them goodnight.

Naruko lay in her bed awake until late at night, worrying and feeling bad over everything. She couldn't get to sleep and she tossed and turned constantly. After many hours, she finally started to feel her eyelids droop.

'What will happen tomorrow?' She thought. 'Sasuke...'


	4. Sasuke Changes

Naruko and Neji walked into their classroom and sat down at their desk. They sat in silence, neither really wanting to talk after the previous night. Naruko looked up toward the door and stared at it. The warning bell rang, and then shortly after, the bell.

He wasn't coming.

They walked in the next day and sat down again, this time talking, but both casting glances towards the door every minute or so. RIIIINNNGG!

Another no show.

The next two weeks passed by, Sasuke skipping school the whole time, never coming in to even give a note to explain, though everyone already knew. Naruko and Neji were beginning to get worried, Sasuke was one of their best friends, and they missed him.

They both were talking at during class, and they decided they would go visit him this afternoon. So when the bell rang, the two packed up their stuff, and walked towards the place their tou-chan had said he was staying now.

* * *

They looked at each other as they stood in front of Sasuke's door, and Neji clenched his hand, knocking on the door.

The door was opened abruptly, and Naruko almost screamed when she saw how he looked, while Neji just gained a frown on his face.

Sasuke looked worse than he ever had, he had heavy bags underneath his eyes, which were red and puffy. His face was pale and he had worry lines plastered all over his face. He had a crazy look on his face, and his hair was greasy from days of not washing it, if not, a week or so.

"Sasuke-kun..." Naruko whispered, her eyes wide.

"What do you want?" Sasuke spit out harshly.

"We're worried about you, Sasuke." Neji said.

"Well go away, I don't need you two to worry about me. I don't need anyone!" Sasuke exclaimed.

"Sasuke-"

"Goodbye." Sasuke said, slamming the door in their faces.

Naruko had tears in her eyes. What had happened to her friend? She knew the pain of being all alone, and that she desperately needed someone to be with her through those times. So why wouldn't Sasuke accept the help.

Naruko started banging on the door. "Sasuke! Let us in! We need to talk! I know it hurts, but you need to be able to get over it!" She yelled.

Neji grabbed Naruko's wrists, stopping the banging. "Naruko... he's not letting us in... we should go home." He said.

Naruko now had a few tears leaking from her eyes. She wanted to help Sasuke, but he wouldn't let her. She stifled her sobs as Neji looked down at the ground, clenched his fists, and then stepped back from the door. He turned around and walked a few more steps before stopping. He looked back at he door and then looked forward again.

"Naruko... we need to go home." He said.

She stepped back, but couldn't look away from Sasuke's apartment, tears flowing from her eyes. Why!? Why couldn't he just accept the help!? She turned swiftly and fled from the apartment, Neji hot on her heels.

They ran the rest of the way home, not wanting to look back to where their friend had changed. He wasn't the same Sasuke anymore. He wasn't **their **Sasuke anymore.

Naruko rammed open the door and flew through the house with Neji, they knocked over a bunch of things and caused a ruckus.

"Neji and Naruko Hyuga! What do you two think you're doing!?" Their mother yelled after them.

Naruko went into her room a slammed her door behind her, locking it. She quickly heard Neji do the same for his room. She then heard loud footsteps coming towards her. Loud bangs echoed off her door as someone slammed their fists against it.

"Young Lady! Come out here and explain what is going on right now!" Kyoko yelled to her daughter.

"Go away!" Naruko yelled before backing up against her bed and falling to the floor. Her back was against the bed and she felt something hot touch her hands as she touched her face. Oh. She must be crying.

"Naruko! Explain yourself! You can't just come slamming in here! Do you know how many things you broke?" Kyoko yelled.

Naruko broke down and sobbed into her hands, tears streaming down her face faster than ever. "Leave me alone!" She yelled, the pure sadness aching in her voice.

Kyoko was shocked to hear her little girl sound like that. Instead of just forcing the door down and making Naruko talk to her, she walked to Neji's room and tried with him.

She knocked on Neji's door. "Neji? Please, open the door." She called to him.

"No!" He bit out, he was crying as well, and he was afraid to use his voice for too much. He didn't want to be weak, the heir of the Hyuga clan shouldn't be weak. But this was his best friend. His best friend had completely changed. Where had the Sasuke he knew gone? Why wouldn't he just let them in, to help him through this?

Kyoko sighed. Looks like he wasn't coming out either.

* * *

"Kids! Time for dinner!" Kyoko called out to the house. She started setting the table, and when she was finished, she noticed that only Hizashi, and her two youngest were sitting at the table. She sighed and went into the hallway.

"Naruko?" She asked, opening the door to her daughter's room. She went in and flipped on the light, only to be faced with an expressionless Naruko. She lay on the bed, her hair and clothes a mess, and her face had dried marks from where the tears streamed down her face. The only thing that showed any emotion were her beautiful blue eyes, they were filled with confusion, anger, but most of all, sadness.

She sat down next to Naruko and rubbed the girl's head. "Naruko?"

Naruko didn't answer, or even move. She just continued to lay there, doing nothing. They stayed like that for a couple of minutes until Kyoko spoke again.

"Naruko, come to dinner." She said.

"He's gone." Naruko whispered.

"What? Who's gone?" Kyoko asked confused.

"He's gone Kaa-san... he's gone." Naruko whispered again before closing her eyes.

Kyoko waited for the girl to speak, move, do anything! But she didn't she just laid there, completely still. Kyoko sighed and got up, leaving her room and flipping off the lights. She turned to her daughter.

"If you want it, dinner will be left out for you." Kyoko said, and then closed the door, going to Neji's room. She opened the door and looked at Neji. He sat on the floor with the same expressionless face as Naruko. He had his knees against his chest and his arms folded over them, his face against his arms, his eyes were dead.

"My baby boy." Kyoko said, sitting on the floor and hugging Neji, who didn't move. "What happened?"

Neji didn't speak for a few moments, but then began. "We saw him."

"Who?" She asked.

"Sasuke." Neji said monotonously.

"You did? How is he?" Kyoko asked.

"He's... changed." Neji said, still staring ahead towards the open door.

"Changed how?" She asked.

Neji turned his head and looked Kyoko straight in the eye. "He's gone Kaa-san... He's gone. The Sasuke we know ceases to exist."

"What? Why would you think that? What did he say?" Kyoko asked worriedly.

Neji dug his face into his hands and stayed like that, but Kyoko heard her son's small voice.

"Please kaa-san... no more... I don't want to think of it anymore!" He said.

"Okay honey." She said, ruffling her son's hair. "If you want dinner, it'll be left out for you."

Kyoko then got up and left the room, closing the door quietly before eating dinner with some of her family. Dinner was quiet until Hoshiko spoke up.

"Kaa-san, what's wrong with onee-chan and onii-san?" She asked.

Kyoko sighed. "They're just going through a tough time honey. I'm sure they'll be better soon."

"Okay." Hoshiko said.

The rest of the dinner was actually full of talking, as everyone felt more relaxed, but Kyoko couldn't help but be worried about her eldest children.

Neji and Naruko didn't go to school for the next three days, worrying themselves sick over everything, but when they went back, the Uchiha was there.

He sat on the opposite side of the classroom from them and glared at them when they looked at him. So that was it. They weren't Sasuke's friends anymore. No one was. He had changed so from that one day, and he wouldn't be the same. He would never be the same.

He would never be their Sasuke again. The one they knew and loved.

* * *

**4 years later – Naruko age 12, Neji age 13**

"Nii-san, do you know what today is?!" Naruko yelled, bouncing in her seat as she hugged her brother.

Neji smiled at his sister's antics. "Yes, I know. You get assigned your team today."

"I get assigned my team today!" Naruko cheered.

Neji rolled his eyes. "I just said that."

"Oh, right!" She said, smiling.

"Neji! It's 8'clock, don't wanna be late now do you?" Kyoko called from the kitchen.

"Mou! Neji! You said you would walk me to the academy today since it was a special day!" Naruko complained.

"And I am. Now let's go! I can't be late for my mission." He said.

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" She said, tying her red hitai-ite around her forehead. She liked it better this way, it matched her hair well, and it still let her bangs curl around the sides of her face. She didn't get why so many girls put it at the top of their heads. No one could see it that way!

Naruko had kept her hair the same way, only adding her headband to the mix. But she had changed the rest of her outfit. Rather than wearing her loud and proud yellow kimono, she had changed to a more professional ninja uniform.

She wore a black tank top that was tight against her rather well developed chest and short red shorts. She had fingerless red gloves on that had metal plates on the beck of them. She had fishnet on her legs, one starting at her ankle and going up to her knee and the one on other leg starting at her kneed going up to her shorts. She had on black shinobi sandals and a proud look on her face. She had changed her outfit today so that she could surprise her friends at the academy.

They took off towards the academy, talking and laughing together. They were definitely close, the closest out of their siblings. Their younger siblings said it was because they were the closest in age, but that wasn't the real reason. The two were just close. They had become friends before siblings, and they just weren't afraid to talk about things with each other.

"Neji, tell me about your first mission again!" Naruko said.

"Okay, it was kind of annoying actually." he said.

_Flashback_

"_Today, you three will be having your first mission." The hokage announced. "You will be chasing and capturing the Daimyo's wife's cat, Tora." _

"_Not to worry Hokage-sama! My youthful students and I will have that cat in no time!" Gai exclaimed. "Let's go team!"  
_

"_Yes Gai-sensei!" Lee cheered and the two ran out of the office. _

_Neji and Tenten sighed. "Don't you think those two are a bit... off?" Tenten asked._

"_Yes." Neji said, and they went to find their team._

"_All-seeing Eye, in position." Neji radioed in to his team._

"_Weapon's Mistress, in position." Tenten's voice said over the radio._

"_Konoha's Green Beast, in position!" Lee cheered over the radio._

"_Quiet Lee." Neji said._

"_Right." Lee responded back._

_Lee dove out of the bushes, scaring the cat away. The cat hissed and ran to the other side of the clearing, where Neji jumped out of his hiding place. The cat ran away, and Tenten dove from the trees and caught the cat._

"_Ow! This stupid cat is scratching me!" Tenten exclaimed._

"_Target captured and confirmed as Tora." Neji relayed over the radio. _

_Gai appeared. "Alright team, let's go!" _

_Flashback End_

"Honestly, all we did was catch someone's lost pet. When you get C-ranks, it'll be a lot more like what you thought being a ninja would be like." Neji said.

"Okay. Tell me about your first C-rank then!" Naruko cheered.

"Okay, it went like this..." Neji said.

_Flashback_

_Neji and his team were headed to the Land of Rice, escorting a caravan that was filled with, what do you know, Rice. They were dropping it off there and were protecting the group bringing the rice there and back._

_They were almost to their destination, when a group of bandits jumped out of the bushes. They started attacking the caravan when Neji's team stepped in._

_Neji was faced with 2 bandits. He threw kunai at them, and actually ended up hitting them, but not in vital areas. How lame were bandits? He charged at them,and they fought him off with their own weapons. _

_Neji pushed chakra into his kunai and slashed straight through one of the bandits' swords, breaking it clean in half. _

_Neji used his other palm that was enforced with chakra to hit the man's head, making him go unconscious. He turned to his other enemy and did the same with him. When he looked up, his team was done with the rest of the bandits, but he found himself slightly panting. _

_His first real fight._

_He smiled and clenched his fists. He was a real ninja now._

_Flashback End_

"Whoa! I can't wait for my first C-rank!" Naruko exclaimed.

"Well don't get too excited, you need to get through all of the D-ranks first." He said. "Well, here's the academy. See you later, imouto."

"See ya!" Naruko called after her brother as he walked off to the Hokage tower.

Naruko smiled as she skipped into the academy. She was so excited! Who would be on her team?! Ahhh! She couldn't wait to find out!

She sat down and started talking to Kiba. The kid was actually really funny, and nice, but most of all, protective. He just didn't like to show that side of him to everyone.

"Settle down class! Settle down!" Iruka called. "Now, I have this years teams. Your teams will be..." He started calling off names and Naruko patiently (yeah right) waited for hers to be called. "Team 7... Naruko Hyuga, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha. Your sensei will be Kakashi Hatake."

Naruko paled as she heard the names. Sakura, she was friends with, she could definitely have fun with her on her team, but... Sasuke. She turned to look at the boy she used to be so close with. Almost nobody remembered they were ever friends. It was too long ago, and most people only saw them as friends for a little while at the beginning of the academy.

Sasuke looked at her and glared, Naruko turned forward and looked at her desk again.

'Great, so Sasuke really does hate me... oh what does it matter! I've known this for years anyways!' She yelled in her mind, but she closed her eyes and felt the become watery. 'So... why does it still hurt so much?' She thought sadly while she bit her lip to keep herself from crying.

Sasuke was looking at her and thinking himself. 'Naruko... so, she's on my team huh... I hate this! Why did they have to put her on my team! It's bad enough just being in school with her! She's... she's one of the few people who actually remembers that my family died... she's one of the few people who was actually one of my real friends... I... I hate this! Whenever I'm around her... I feel my mask breaking... she doesn't look at me like everybody else, either praising me or being a fan girl or disliking me... she looks at me with sadness... like... she so badly wants to make things right between us, but then she seems to shift in moods to hating herself so quickly it confuses me.'

"Now," Iruka said, catching their attention, "You can all go out to lunch, be back in an hour to meet up with your teams."

Naruko stood up and walked out quickly, not wanting to face her new teammate. She wouldn't, no couldn't, talk to Sasuke.

She ran off to the place she knew that Neji and his team usually ate lunch at and found them in one of the booths. She walked up to their booth and stopped at the end of the table, getting all of their attentions.

"Imouto?" Neji asked.

"Ne-kun, I have a horrible problem." She said, biting her lip and nervously running her fingers through her hair.

"What is it?" Neji asked, sliding over to let her in the booth and gaining a worried look on his face.

"Sasuke. He's on my team." She said.

Neji paled, and his mouth fell open slightly.

"I don't get it, what's the problem with Sasuke?" Tenten asked. She remembered him from class, he was actually pretty cute.

Naruko looked at her and Tenten was shocked, the girl she was so close with had pain in her eyes. Pure pain, and nothing else.

"You... you wouldn't understand." Naruko said, looking back at Neji.

"So... what... what are you gonna do?" He asked.

"I don't know. You're the onii-san! You're supposed to be giving me advice!" Naruko said.

"I... I'm not sure what I would even do." Neji said.

"Well, he's gonna be on my team from now on." She said, putting her face in her hands and sighing.

She ate lunch with them, ordering her own food and Gai told her about how Kakashi would be. Gai told her he was always late, and reading rather 'unyouthful' material for books.

Naruko left roughly 5 minutes before she had to get back to the academy, hugging her brother and his team, and taking off.

* * *

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

"Uggghhhh! Where is sensei!" Sakura complained.

"I know right! Gosh! He's taking forever!" Naruko complained with her.

Sasuke stood up from his chair and grabbed Naruko's hand, pulling her out of her seat and dragging her.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" Naruko exclaimed.

"Sakura, stay in here." Sasuke demanded, pulling Naruko out into the hall. He slammed the door behind them and turned to Naruko.

"What do you think you're doing!?" She yelled.

"Why! Why do you keep looking at me like that?!" He exclaimed.

Naruko breathed in quickly and her eyes widened. "What are you talking about?"

"You know what I mean! You're pitying me for my family aren't you!" He accused.

"What!? No, of course I'm not!" Naruko said.

"Then why? What is that look of sadness in your eyes when you look at me?" Sasuke asked.

"Well... ever since that day four years ago..." Naruko said, looking at the floor and shuffling her feet.

"What? The Uchiha Massacre?" Sasuke questioned, flinching inwardly.

"No... two weeks after that... you probably don't remember it that well anyways, but... Neji and I came to visit you, and you... you just screamed at us and told us to get out, and then you slammed the door in our face... then you kept glaring at us after that... we...w-we were j-just t-trying t-to h-help you Sasuke." Naruko said, getting a stutter in her voice as she felt her eyes water. "Great! A-and now you think I'm s-some big baby b-because I-I'm crying!"

"Wait, what do you mean you were trying to help me?" Sasuke asked.

"What do I mean?! You're asking me what I mean?! SASUKE! You're family had just died and you became a shut in! We wanted to help you get back to your old self, but you wouldn't let us! You wouldn't even let us mourn with you! Do you know how much it hurt when you changed?! I lost you! I lost my best friend!" Naruko screamed at him.

Sasuke stood there dumbstruck. "I... I was your best friend?"

"Yes Sasuke... I... I really liked you." Naruko said, and she started blushing and shuffling her feet. "I... I still kind of like you... but it's in a different way."

"You... like me?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah... but, Sakura's in there! And, she likes you too! Mmhhmm! And Ino-chan too and some of the other girls in class, and-"

Naruko was silenced by Sasuke kissing her. She stood there for a few seconds, trying to take in what was happening, but found herself kissing him back. The stood in the hall like that for a minute or two until they both pulled away, panting. Sasuke leaned into her so that his mouth was right next to her ear.

"True. But I like redheads." He whispered.

Naruko's eyes widened and she turned her head so that her cheek rested against Sasuke's cheek. "So, you like me too?"

"Yep. Ramen later?" He asked, encircling her waist and holding her close while smiling lightly while closing his eyes.

"Ummmm... sure." Naruko said, blushing, then she giggled. "This is probably more than you've talked in the last 4 years."

"What can I say? I seem to revert back to the old Sasuke when I'm around you." Sasuke said.

"No!" Naruko whined, "Why can't this be new Sasuke too?"

Sasuke chuckled. He actually chuckled! "I guess it can be, only for you though."

"No! You have to at least be this Sasuke for my family! Especially Neji!" Naruko said, pulling out of his grasp and planting her hands firmly on her hips.

"Fine. For you and your family, but for everyone else it's still old Sasuke." Sasuke said.

Naruko frowned, "Fine, that's good enough... for now."

"Hn." Sasuke said.

"So... are we... going out now?" Naruko asked. Sasuke just nodded and then turned around and went back into the classroom. "Okay."

Naruko went back into the classroom and sat down next to Sasuke. Well, his other side, since Sakura was sitting next to him already. Sasuke kept looking ahead, not paying attention to Sakura's ramblings, but when she sat down, he made sure to drape an arm on the back rest of Naruko's seat.

Soon enough, a man with gravity defying silver hair, a mask, and his hitaite covering one of his eyes walked in. He stood there lazily and looked at the kids.

"You're my sensei?" Naruko asked. "You've got to be kidding me! I got my nii-san's sensei's eternal rival!"

Kakashi's eye twitched. "Gai is ridiculous."

"Hey, I like Gai-sensei! He might be kinda weird, but he's nice and really cares about people!" Naruko said, defending the man.

"Wait, who?" Sakura asked.

"It doesn't matter. You three, roof, 5 minutes." Kakashi said before flashing away.

Naruko sighed. This was gonna be a long day.


	5. A Rock in the Collection

The group was quickly on gathered on the roof, Kakashi on the railing of the building, Sakura taking her seat on one of the steps, Naruko sitting down on the steps as well, and Sasuke sitting between them. Well, sort of, Sasuke actually sat right next to Naruko, not bothering with Sakura.

"Alright, well, introduce yourselves. Let's do name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, and dreams." Kakashi said.

"Sensei, do you think you could do it first, so we know how to do it?" Sakura asked.

"Sure. Kakashi Hatake, I don't really feel like telling you my likes or dislikes... I have a lot of hobbies.. and my dream? Well, why should I tell you that?" He said, making their sweat drop, all they learned was his name! "Why don't you start?" Kakashi said, motioning to Sakura.

"Sakura Haruno! I like (looks at Sasuke and giggles) My hobbies are (Look at Sasuke and giggled again) and my dream is (looks at Sasuke and squeals)."

'Great. A fan girl.' Kakashi thought. "And your dislikes?"

"I dislike Ino-pig!" She declared.

"Okay. How about the other girl goes?" Kakashi said.

"Naruko Hyuga. I like spending time with my siblings and parents, hanging out with my friends, training with my nii-san, ramen, my favorite tree, and when Sasuke isn't being a hard ass." She said, getting a roll of the eyes from Sasuke. "I dislike when Sasuke **is **being a hard ass, mean orphanage ladies with frying pans, and when friends fight. My hobbies include, training with my nii-san, teaching my imouto, hanging with my friends, and collecting rocks from a river down by the Hyuga Compound. My dream is to become an established kunoichi and to have a family of my own."

'Good, a kunoichi with goals that matter. Thank god, I probably would have shot myself if I had two fan girls.' He thought. "Alright, now you." Kakashi said, looking at Sasuke.

"Sasuke Uchiha. I hate almost everything, and I like very few things." He said, glancing at Naruko. "Training is my hobby. I have no dream, because I will make it a reality, I wish to kill a certain man and restart my clan."

'Great, and avenger. That's what I needed.' Kakashi thought.

'Sasuke-kun is so hot!' Sakura thought.

'Sasuke...' Naruko thought. 'Don't worry, I'll always be here for you.'

"Well, I suppose that draws this meeting to an end." Kakashi said. "Tomorrow, meet me at Training ground 7, at 6:00 a.m., you have an additional test to pass if you want to become genin. Be warned, if you eat breakfast, you'll throw up." He then disappeared, leaving three shocked genin in his wake.

* * *

Naruko stood up, dusting off herself. "I'm gonna go home." She said, then she jumped off the roof and down to the street below.

Sasuke silently stood up and did the same as her, landing next to her. And Sakura did the same.

"Sasuke-kun! Go on a date with me!" Sakura said.

"No." Sasuke said, walking alongside Naruko as she walked towards the direction of their homes.

"Pleeeeaaasssee! Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said.

"Leave me alone, you're annoying." He said bluntly, making Sakura stop, tears pricking in her eyes before she ran away.

Naruko stopped and turned to him. "That was a bit harsh, don't you think?"

"No, I simply stated the truth. Besides, do you want her asking me out all the time?" Sasuke asked.

"Well, no..." Naruko said, looking at the ground.

"So, it's best I get her off of her crush now." Sasuke said, before taking her hand and making a right turn down the street instead of going straight.

"Where are we going?" Naruko asked.

"Remember? We have a date at Ichiraku's." He said.

Naruko smiled, before grinning and jumping onto his back. Sasuke stumbled before barely regaining his balance. He looked up at her and quirked an eyebrow.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Letting my boyfriend give me a piggy-back ride, now onwards!" She cheered, pointing towards the ramen stand gleefully.

Sasuke rolled his eyes but smiled lightly in what felt like a very long time before walking towards the ramen stand.

"Mou! Go faster!" Naruko complained.

"You want fast? I'll show you fast." Sasuke said before running, full speed, down the road. Naruko lost her sense of direction as he ran, but she was suddenly plopped down on the ground. She looked up to see a panting Uchiha and blinked to regain her vision completely.

"Hey, how are you so fast?" Naruko asked.

"Training." He said, getting his breath back and taking her hand again, bringing her inside of the ramen booth.

The couple had a great meal of ramen, teasing each other and laughing, and just enjoying each others presence. Naruko was very happy to see that she in fact did bring out the old Sasuke, the one who wasn't afraid to talk to her and laugh.

Sasuke graciously payed for the meal, even though Naruko insisted that she pay for half of it since she ate so much. He wouldn't have any of it though, saying it was the gentlemanly thing to do. Though he made a mental note to thank god that his clan had been so rich, so that he had enough money to just barely cover all the ramen that Naruko would eat throughout the course of their lifetime.

Sasuke walked Naruko home, and they stopped at the gates to the compound and turned to face one another.

"Thanks Sasuke, I really had a lot of fun." Naruko said.

"I did too. Hey, good luck on tomorrow's test, if you need any help, ask me." He said.

"Okay." Naruko said, before getting up on her tip toes (She was still pretty short for her age) and kissing him. She then walked inside of her compound as Sasuke walked back to his apartment. She was practically radiating happiness. Not only did she have her old friend back, but he was her boyfriend now too.

She walked in the house and found Neji sitting in the living room, studying a scroll, he rolled it up as she came in, before she smiled brightly at him.

"Hey nii-san." She said, shutting the door.

"I know that look, that's the look you get when a day is good enough to add another rock to your collection." Neji said, knowingly.

Naruko had a rock collection that she liked very much, but it wasn't an ordinary one. Everyday Naruko had what she thought was a life changing experience, she added a rock to her collection. She went to the stream in the compound and found a rock that represented what the circumstance was, and painted the date on it, to remember it forever. She had a few, some were bad, and some were good. A few examples were the rock she had from the day that she first met Neji, their kaa-san, and their tou-chan. Another was from the day they formally excepted her into their family. One of her other rocks, the day that she and Neji were kidnapped, and their Uncle was killed. Another, the day of the Uchiha Massacre. Another was from the day Sasuke changed. She had two more from the days her little brother and sister were brought into the world. Another from just a few days before, when she had officially graduated. Today, she would add another.

"Yep! It most definitely is!" She cheered.

"So, what's it for?" Neji asked, putting the scroll down and smiling at his sister.

"Okay, umm... now, Neji, don't freak out okay? But... me and Sasuke... we're dating." She said, biting her lip as she waited for her brother's reaction.

Neji stood up and walked past her, opening up the door and walking into the yard.

"Neji?" She asked.

"Stay here Naruko, I'll be back in a bit." Neji said, closing the door.

Naruko stood there in confusion.

What just happened?

* * *

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Sasuke opened his door and was immediately pulled forward by his shirt, and up off the ground. He looked up and saw Neji there, his eyes narrowed. The boy had already started to hit puberty and had shot up like a weed, already a couple inches taller than Sasuke and still growing.

"Neji?" He questioned.

"So, you're going out with my imouto." Neji said. "You listen to me Uchiha. I don't care if we become friends again or not in this circumstance. You hurt my imouto, whether it be emotionally or physically, and I'll break your face. Once I'm done with you, people won't see the 'handsome Uchiha' anymore, instead, they'll see someone that kids hear about as monsters that are incredibly deformed for god knows why so that they'll eat their vegetables. And I swear to god, if you EVER touch her inappropriately, I'll make sure you never have sex, never mind children, got it!"

Sasuke nodded fearfully as his old friend dropped him to the ground, turned around and walked away. "Hey, let's try to be friends though?" He called after his old friend he hoped to reunite with.

"I'd like that, but what I just said, still stands." Neji said as he walked off.

Sasuke gulped as he shut his door. Not to self, never hurt Naruko, for it may lead to excruciating pain.

* * *

Naruko smiled happily as she placed a new rock among her rock collection on her shelf. This one was black and round. She picked it out specifically because of Sasuke's hair color, and it was round, showing he had come full circle in his problems, and was now ready to be loved again.

She heard the door open and looked into the hallway to see her brother walking down the hall.

"Ne, Neji-nii-san, where did you go?" She asked, poking her head out into the hall.

"Don't worry about it imouto. But don't be afraid to tell me if Sasuke ever does anything to you, okay?" He said.

"Oh no, you threatened him, didn't you?" Naruko said.

"Hell yes I did, no one hurts my imouto and thinks they can get away with it." Neji said.

Naruko sighed. "Okay, but you better not have scarred him too bad."

"Don't worry, I think I scarred him just the right amount." Neji said, walking to his room.

* * *

Naruko and her family down for dinner at the dining room table. Naruko moved the food around on her plate, not paying attention to it. She couldn't help but worry about tomorrow's test. Would it be easy? Hard? What would happen if she **didn't **pass it? What if all of them didn't pass it? What if none of them pass it? Would everyone just not be a ninja, or go back to the academy? She took a bit of comfort in the thought that Sasuke would help her if she needed it, but she wanted to be able to do it on her own too.

"Naruko?" Her mother asked. "You've barely touched your food, and this is your favorite. Is something wrong sweetheart?"

Naruko smiled at her mother. "No, I'm just worried about tomorrow's test."

"Don't worry imouto, you'll do great." Neji said, smiling at his sister.

"You think so?" She asked nervously, biting her lip.

"Don't worry Naruko, I have faith in you that you'll do great." Hizashi said, smiling lightly towards his daughter, making her shimmer in pride.

"Yeah, you guys are right, I'm sure I'll pass!" Naruko cheered.

"That's the spirit Onee-chan!" Koji cheered.

Naruko went to sleep that night happily, with all that happened during the day, she doubted she would have a better one. Sasuke, he had come back to her, he was his old self again. And she was ready for the test to become a ninja tomorrow, she would finally be a REAL ninja!

That night, she had the best night of sleep she had had in a very long time.


	6. The Bells

Naruko yawned loudly as she slumped down by the bridge near the training ground they were told to meet at. She noted that the bridge matched her hair and shorts and giggled, how weird was that? She reached into her bag and took out her breakfast. Screw her sensei! Her brother and parents always told her that energy was essential for ninjas, and where did energy come from? Food.

She bit into an apple and looked up as she heard footsteps. She smiled as she saw Sasuke plop down beside her and kiss her on the cheek. She smiled widely.

"Morning!" She said, taking another bite of her apple.

"Morning, but, didn't sensei say not to eat?" Sasuke said.

"He said we shouldn't eat, he didn't rule it out, therefore, I'm eating. I don't wanna starve to death." She said, then handed him half of her breakfast. "Here, you need to eat too, and don't give me any of that crap that you already ate, I know you didn't."

"Thanks." Sasuke grudgingly admitted before eating the rest of her breakfast. Once he was finished, he handed Naruko back her bento and she put it in her bag.

Naruko shivered, damn, she should have brought a coat! That's when she felt warmth around her as Sasuke wordlessly put an arm around her and pulled her close to him, looking straight ahead at the river.

Naruko snuggled into him and ended up falling asleep like that. Even though she got a great night's sleep, Sasuke's warm and comforting body with his strong, steady heartbeat made her feel safe, and lulled her into sleep.

* * *

Sakura showed up, and saw the sight of Naruko asleep and in Sasuke's arms, with Sasuke asleep as well, she denied the fact and convinced herself that it was only for the need of survival, since it was cold.

She then waited alongside them, waiting for their sensei to show up or for them to wake up. She would laugh really hard when Sasuke woke up and found himself **snuggling **with a girl. Well, one that wasn't HER anyways. He would flip out and probably deny it ever happened.

She waited, and waited, and FINALLY, her sensei showed up.

"You're late sensei!" Sakura scolded.

"Well, you see, I was on my way here, when a black cat ran across my path, so I had to backtrack and take the long way here." Kakashi said.

"Well, Naruko and Sasuke are asleep anyways." Sakura mumbled, turning to the two.

Kakashi eye smiled before picking up the two children and tossing them into the river. The two bubbled up to the surface rather quickly and started yelling at him, or rather, Naruko did.

"What the hell was that?! Why couldn't you just wake us up like a normal person!?" She yelled.

"Because, that would be too nice, and you weren't prepared for your training with your sensei, so pay attention!" Kakashi told them. "You will all be tested right now with a survival test. I have two bells, and if, by lunch, you manage to get one of the bells from me, you pass. If you don't, you'll be tied to the post and will have to skip lunch. Be warned, this test had a 66% failing rate. If you don't pass, you'll be sent back to the academy."

As her sensei was explaining this, something didn't seem right to Naruko. Why would it have such a high failing rate? There would be not so many ninja in the world if the failing rate was that high. And why only two bells? That means that at MOST, two of them would pass. She'd never heard of a three cell team before, only 4 cells. There was something fishy about this.

"Now, your test starts... now!" He called out.

Sakura and Sasuke ran into hiding places, while Naruko just stood in front of him.

"Ahhh, so, you're the naïve one who thinks they can take me down eh?" Kakashi asked.

"Hn. I don't care how strong you are, I want this so badly, that I'll take you down! Just wait and see, ttebayo!" Naruko cheered.

"I'm waiting." Kakashi teased, taking out a book.

Naruko got a tick mark in her forehead at her sensei thinking he could read a book because of how easy she would be to beat, and almost let her anger win over before she heard words in her mind.

"_Naruko, I know you're nervous, so let me give you a word of advice. Don't let your anger get a hold of you. Your sensei will deliberately be underestimating you to get your emotions riled up, don't fall for it." Neji's words sounded in her mind._

Naruko took a deep breath before reaching back into her kunai pouch and searching for what was possibly the most important item in there. She had never shown this skill in the academy, wanting to keep it a secret, but she had been working on it with Neji for years.

Kakashi watched out of the corner of his eye, expecting her to take out a kunai or some shuriken. Sasuke and Sakura watched intently from their hiding spaces. While Naruko took out...

Wait! Was that a blindfold?

Naruko took the red blindfold that matched her outfit and tied it around her eyes, she was much better at this when she didn't have to see to use the technique.

"You honestly think you're that good? To take me down while blind?" Kakashi asked.

Naruko took in another deep breath before saying, "Nope, this just helps me."

Naruko reached her chakra out as she had practiced so many times, and felt Kakashi's presence in front of her. She pushed chakra into her fingertips and lunged forward with high speed.

Kakashi wasn't expecting her so suddenly, and she managed a hit on him. His eyes widened as he felt one of his single tenketsu points close up. No way! There's no way she could do that! Not even normal Hyugas with the Byakugan could do that!

He jumped back a few yards and saw the smirk on Naruko's face.

"What is it sensei? Weren't expecting that?" She asked innocently.

"How... how did you do that?" He asked.

"Loads of hard work!" Naruko yelled before running towards him and fighting him, hand to hand. Unfortunately, he was able to dodge of deflect her hands, and she wasn't able to get in a hit. She growled and stepped it up, going as fast as she could, but she still couldn't get in a hit.

"Lesson 1: Taijutsu." Kakashi said. He then punched her in the stomach, making her slide back a few feet and clutch at her stomach. He then appeared behind her and grabbed her wrist, twisting her arm behind her head, and grabbed her other arm and pulled it behind her other one.

Naruko winced in pan at her arms and did the only thing she could think off, kicked backwards and wait to see what happened.

Fortunately for Kakashi, she didn't hit him in the no-nos. However, she did manage to hit one of his shins, making him stumble back, and allowing Naruko to break free. However, while she rubbed her wrist, trying to get the pain out of them, Kakashi formed a symbol behind her.

'Tiger Seal? That's a fire technique!' Sasuke thought. He jumped out of his tree at just the right angle to smack his foot into Kakashi's jaw, and stop whatever technique he was going to use. However, 'Kakashi' burst into a poof of smoke.

'Shadow Clone!' Sasuke thought.

He went against Naruko's back and turned his head to her.

"Naruko. I've got a plan, but you need to do it just right, alright?" Sasuke asked.

"Got it!" Naruko said, after he explained the plan quickly.

Kakashi appeared in front of them. 'So, two of them are actually working together this year eh?' He thought.

Sasuke flew through hand symbols as Naruko ran into the woods. Kakashi's eyes widened as he saw the hand symbols. The boy knew a fire technique and could use it at his age?

"Fireball Jutsu!" Sasuke called out, making the tiger seal and blowing out a huge fireball towards his teacher, who jumped back quickly.

Naruko, who had gone underground during this process, propelled herself up and out of the ground, startling the Kakashi who was still in the air.

Naruko couldn't get all the way to his height though, so she grabbed his foot and pulled him down. She grabbed the bells and was about to be fought by Kakashi, when Sasuke flew towards them, grabbed Naruko, and landed nearby as their teacher did, Naruko in his arms.

Sasuke put Naruko down and she handed him a bell, both smirking triumphantly.

Kakashi stood there in shock. No one had managed to even come close to getting the bells before, and here these two kids were holding them. Had he lost his touch, or had he just came across some very talented, worthy students this year?

Naruko pulled her bottom eyelid down and stuck her tongue out at him, blowing a raspberry at him.

Well, they definitely weren't very respectable.

"Haha Kakashi-sensei! We got the bells! And now, we win!" Naruko said.

"Alright, Sakura, come out from you hiding place!" Kakashi called out, and Sakura sadly trudged out from her hiding place.

Kakashi then tied her to one of the posts and had Sasuke and Naruko sit on either side of her. She blushed heavily and looked down towards the ground.

"Now, Sakura, since both of your teammates passed, I'll let you have one more try after lunch." Kakashi said, handing Naruko and Sasuke bentos. "Now, Sakura, as punishment, you won't get lunch, Naruko, Sasuke, don't you dare think of feeding her any!"

He then poofed off, and Naruko snorted and stood up, opening up her bento. "Sakura, open up!" She said.

"Naruko? You heard what Kakashi-sensei said! You can't give me any!" She said.

"Please! Sakura, you're my friend, and I had breakfast anyways! Plus, I know you're hungry! Just eat, you won't be able to pass without energy!" Naruko said, and started feeding the girl some of her food.

Sakura had tears in her eyes. "Thank you, Naruko... I don't know what I would have done if I didn't have any energy."

"No problem!" She said, sitting down once she was done feeding Sakura. "Besides, I'm not hungry anyways!" Her stomach then took the advantage to growl loudly, making her blush heavily.

Sasuke smiled lightly and pushed his half eaten lunch towards her.

"No, Sasuke, I couldn't!" She said, pushing it back to him.

"Oh please, you shared your breakfast with me, I'm just repaying the favor." He said, pushing the lunch back to her.

Naruko looked at her stomach as it made another loud growling sound and blushed, snatching the lunch up before she embarrassed herself more than she already had. She quickly ate the remnants of the food, and kissed Sasuke on the cheek.

"Thanks." She said.

Kakashi then appeared with a poof of smoke. "You three! I told you not to let Sakura eat any food! Yet you deliberately disobeyed my orders!" He yelled.

Naruko stood up quickly and clenched her fists. "What were we supposed to do? Just let her take the test starving?! No! Friends don't do that to other friends!"

"Well then you three! PASS!" Kakashi said.

All of their jaws hung open. "We... Pass?" Sakura asked.

"Yep! The true point of this exercise is to see if you work well as a team, which you guys showed you do. So, you all pass my test! Welcome to the official team 7!" Kakashi said.

Naruko and Sakura cheered, while Sasuke just grinned.

"Well, tomorrow will be our first training session, so be prepared. I'll meet you all here, 8 a.m." Kakashi said, before poofing away.

Naruko then untied Sakura while Sasuke just sat on the steps, watching her with admiration. When Sakura was loose, Naruko turned to Sasuke and leaned down to him.

"Ne, my family wanted to invite you to this thing we're doing tonight. It's like a celebratory dinner. We always do it when a big event happens, and our family goes to a nice restaurant. Do you wanna come?" Naruko asked.

"Sure." Sasuke said, hoping to get on her family's good graces. Refusing their first invitation to a formal dinner usually reserved for family only would be a bad idea.

"Cool! Come to my house at 5:00, okay?" She said.

"I'll be there." He said, before pecking her on the lips and both of them leaving so they could go home and get ready. After all, they didn't want to smell as bad as they did, and Naruko had dirt all over her from the Earth technique.

* * *

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Sasuke nervously waited in at the door, fiddling with his black shirt. Naruko had said fancy right? But it wasn't like Suit and Tie, right? Aaaggh! Why didn't she just tell him what to wear? What if he wasn't fancy enough. Or too fancy?

His thoughts were ceased as the door opened to reveal Mrs. Hyuga, standing at the door while putting one of her earrings in.

"Oh Sasuke! It's wonderful of you to come! We'll just be a second more, come on in!" She said, opening the door wider to let the boy in.

Sasuke went in and watched Mrs. Hyuga walk off to somewhere in the house, and when he turned his head, noticed that Mr. Hyuga, the clan head, was standing at the archway.

"Sasuke. It's been a long time." He said.

"Yes it had sir." Sasuke said respectfully.

"Come, I'd like to have a chat with you for a minute." He said, motioning for Sasuke to follow.

Sasuke followed the Head of The Hyuga clan also known as Naruko's father into his study. They sat down, Sasuke facing the man. Hizashi folded his hands over each other and sat there with a calm face. Sasuke was nervous, but with years of schooling his face, he was able to seem calm.

"So, you're dating my daughter are you?" He asked.

"Yes sir, I am." Sasuke said.

"You do realize I'm very protective of my children, my daughters especially, and I will not tolerate a man that will hurt them." Hizashi warned.

"Of course sir, I have no intention whatsoever of hurting Naruko. I like her a lot, and I will be good to her." Sasuke said.

"As long as how you treated her four years ago wasn't being good to her." Hizashi said, making Sasuke wince. "Do you realize how hurt she was? She wouldn't come out of her room for 3 days, and she scared all of us, because she would barely talk. She usually laid there with a dead look in her eyes and said nothing."

"I'm sorry sir. I regret that day very much, and I wish I could take it back. I won't ever harm her like that again." Sasuke said.

"So, you promise to treat her with respect then I assume. But be warned, do one thing to hurt her, and you will deeply regret it." Hizashi said.

"Of course sir." Sasuke said.

"Very well, shall we get to dinner then?" Hizashi said, standing up.

"Yes sir." Sasuke said, standing as well and following the man out of his study.

When Sasuke walked back into the living room, Naruko was there and she looked... amazing. She had on a silvery gray Kimono that had red, vibrant flowers trailing up one side of it. Her hair fell down normally, she hadn't felt the need to change it since she loved it. She had a sliver bow tied into the back of it though, near the top, that held some of her hair together neatly. She had just a touch of make-up on, only some mascara to lengthen her lashes.

"Oh no, Tou-chan, you weren't mean to Sasuke were you?" She said, putting her delicate hands on her hips.

"I was just warning him not to hurt you, or he'll pay the consequences." Hizashi said.

"Tou-chan! Don't worry about it! Sasuke is a nice guy!" Naruko defended her boyfriend.

"Alright! Alright! Let's go! We don't want to lose our table!" Kyoko chimed in, leading them all outside while taking her two youngest by the hands.

They all walked out and Naruko fell into step with Sasuke, holding hands with him and speaking to him quietly.

"You look breathtaking." Sasuke whispered to her, making her blush.

"Thanks, you look pretty handsome yourself." Naruko said. "Though I think red looks best on you."

"Really? Is that why I fell for a red-head?" He asked her, making her giggle.

"Yep! It's a sign that you look good in red that you have to like me, just admit it." She said to him.

"Alright Alright, I admit it." Sasuke said, chuckling lightly.

"Ne, do you think Kakashi-sensei will actually show up on time tomorrow?" She asked.

"Who knows? He obviously wasn't in a good mood since he woke us up like that, but he might get there on time tomorrow." Sasuke said.

"I wouldn't bother." Neji said, falling into step beside them. "Gai-sensei is very good friends with Kakashi-sensei, and he says he never comes on time, he's always a few hours late."

"Nii-san! Why didn't you tell me that this morning?" Naruko said.

"Because, I'm not allowed to tell you anything about the test or your teacher, it's against the rules. But you know now, I could have just let you get up and go early tomorrow." He said.

Naruko sighed. "Oh alright, thanks. Hey! We're here!" She said, her family coming to a stop just before the restaurant they had reserved a table at.

* * *

Naruko sighed contentedly as her head hit the pillow. She closed her eyes and smiled as she thought of the day, she had passed. SHE HAD PASSED! She was a ninja now! And her family approved of her dating Sasuke, of course, she knew her mom would, but her dad took some more convincing. Plus, at dinner, Sasuke and Neji had started talking, and laughing too. It looks like their relationship thankfully hadn't been too damaged from that day four years ago.

She fell into a deep, blissful sleep, dreaming about the great days that were sure to come.


	7. Missions

Naruko screamed loudly as her face was clawed apart. "YOU DAMN STUPID CAT! UGH! I HATE YOU!" She yelled at it.

Seeing Naruko in pain, Sasuke sighed before taking the moronic cat in his arms, where it started clawing at him. He sighed and held it up by the scruff of its neck away from him.

Naruko got up and dusted herself off, kissing Sasuke on the cheek. "Thanks." She said, fixing her messy hair.

"Target Confirmed: Gray cat with red ribbon on it's left ear. This is definitely Tora." Sasuke radioed to their two remaining teammates.

Soon enough, Sakura and Kakashi appeared in the clearing and Kakashi smiled at them. "Good work team, let's get this cat back to the Hokage Tower ASAP."

* * *

"Here." Sasuke said, dropping the cat into the Fire Daimyo's wife's arms. He watched with amusement as she practically suffocated the thing by hugging it into her huge chest.

'Hn. That's what you get for clawing my girlfriend's face, demon cat.' Sasuke thought.

The Fire Daimyo thanked them and him and his wife left, leaving Team 7 in the Mission assignment room with Iruka and the Hokage.

"Good work Team 7. Now, for your next mission, you can babysit some kids, pull weeds from a local farm, clean the stream, you can-"

"OLD MAN! GIVE US A GOOD MISSION!" Naruko yelled at him.

"Naruko! That's no way to talk to the Hokage!" Iruka reprimanded her.

"But I want a better mission ttebayo! We can do a lot better than catching some god damn cat! We're a way better team than that!" She yelled.

The Hokage chuckled. "Well, Kakashi, what do you think about this?"

"I think that my team is ready for their first C-rank Hokage-sama. They've been doing great for the past few months, and I know they will be able to preform well if you give them the chance." Kakashi said.

"Very well, your team will get a C-rank." Sarutobi said.

"Yes!" Naruko cheered. "Did ya hear that Sasuke? We get a C-rank!"

"I know Naruko, I heard." Sasuke said, grinning.

"You shall be escorting a bridge builder back to his home town in Wave Country. You will be his bodyguards, and will stay there with him until the bridge is completed. When it is done, your mission is over." Sarutobi said. "Bring in Tanzuna!"

An old man stumbled in with a straw hat and a bottle of beer. He reeked of alcohol, he was drunk for god's sakes! He narrowed his eyes at the group.

"What the hell is this? All I got was a bunch of kids! Look at them! I got some strawberry short cake, duck-butt head, and a tomato!" The man staggered out.

Naruko got flames in her eyes as a giant tick mark appeared on her forehead and her hair floated up from sheer anger. "EXCUSE ME OLD MAN!? OH YOU'RE DEAD!" She yelled, running towards the man.

Kakashi caught the back of her shirt and held her back, her struggling to break free. "Naruko, we can't kill the clients." He sighed.

"Did you hear what he said sensei!? He called us horrible names! I hate it when people call me tomato! IT'S UNACCEPTABLE!" She yelled.

"Shut it kid! I can call you whatever I want because I'm paying you." Tanzuna said.

Naruko clamped her mouth shut but made a frustrated noise.

"Alright kids, get your stuff together for about two weeks. We'll meet at the West Gate in two hours." Kakashi said.

"Yes sensei." The three said, before leaving the office to pack.

* * *

Naruko plopped down on the ground, overstuffed backpack hanging off her back. She sighed and closed her eyes as she waited for her team to get there. Why did it seem like she was always the first one to their meeting place?

That's when she remembered she forgot to attach her new arm bands that could hold her trench knives to her upper arms. She searched through her bag, and of course, where were they? At the bottom. So she ended up knocking everything out and around in the process. She zipped it up when she was done and looked up to see a red Sasuke.

"Hey Sasuke-kun! Oh, why are you red?" She asked, getting up and feeling his forehead to make sure he wasn't sick.

"Umm, Naruko?" He said.

"Yeah? What is it?" She asked.

"Your... uh, your... mmm... you must have dropped your... ahh..." Sasuke said.

"Jeez Sasuke, just spit it out!" Naruko said, rolling her eyes.

Sasuke pointed behind her, his face still as bright as her hair. "I think you dropped your bra." he said, looking off to the side in embarrassment.

Naruko looked behind her and sure enough, one of her bras, which of course, she liked fancy bras, so it was red lace (Oh god no!), was lying on the ground in plain sight! No wonder Sasuke was blushing!

She shrieked and quickly packed it away in her bag, hoping no one had walked by the gate and seen it. She blushed madly and once she had it away, she felt much better. But that's when she realized...

Her boyfriend had just seen her bra...

She stood up abruptly and pointed a finger uncomfortably close to Sasuke's face. "You speak of this to no one, got it?" She said threateningly.

He gulped and nodded rigidly, still having some blush on his face from seeing his girlfriend's bra. He wouldn't ever admit it to anyone, EVER, but he had considered picking it up, pocketing it, and never telling anyone just where it had gone. But he was going to be with them for at least 2 weeks, and there was a good chance that with his luck, someone would find it.

* * *

"Alright, let's set off!" Kakashi said, letting his team go in front of him as they left the gates.

Naruko and Sasuke walked in the front, Sakura in the middle, and Kakashi and Tanzuna in the back. Sakura was going to walk with her teammates, but they seemed like they were having a private conversation.

She didn't get it, were they... dating? No, that didn't make any sense, Naruko had never showed any interest in Sasuke before, so why would they suddenly become so close? But they were joking around, and Sakura was startled as Sasuke laughed out loud. Sasuke never laughed. Ever. What was going on?

Naruko narrowed her eyes as she and Sasuke laughed. Why was there a puddle on the ground. It hadn't rained for a while in Konoha, she would know. Because she was forced, along with Neji, to go outside and check to make sure EVERY SINGLE KID in the compound was in their house, so they wouldn't get sick. It sucked, and they both hated it, and it always put them in a bad mood. She DEFINITELY would have remembered that in the past few weeks, since it didn't rain too often.

Naruko looked to her boyfriend and was about to tell him about her confusion with the puddle, when suddenly, two people jumped out of the puddle, wrapping a chain around their sensei and pulling him apart.

She froze, her eyes wide as she viewed her first ever enemy. She wanted to move, to help Sasuke as he sprung into action, but she was rooted to the ground.

Sasuke slammed a kick into one of the brother's faces, making him fly back a few feet, but saw the other one keep running.

Straight towards his girlfriend, that is.

The man managed to slash her with a kunai, making her cry out in pain. Once Sasuke heard that, he felt a rush of adrenaline to help him save the person most precious to him.

He appeared in front of Naruko, deflecting the man's punch and punching him in the stomach, making him fly back. The two twins recovered and rushed at him, but he threw a kunai at their chain, pinning them back against a tree.

Kakashi appeared in front of the enemy ninja and tied them up, before taking them and Tanzuna aside.

Sasuke turned to Naruko worriedly, his forehead forming a v. He took her hand in his and looked at it carefully.

"Naruko, we should go back, your hand, they had poison in their kunai. You'll get hurt, and might die if we keep going." He said, worry entering his usual calm black eyes.

Naruko took a deep breath and reached for her trench knife, before slashing it across her hand, drawing more blood and making it drip down her arm.

"Naruko!" Sasuke exclaimed, grabbing her arm to keep her from doing it again. "What are you doing?"

"Getting the poison out of my system. I don't need it to hinder me, and this is my first time out of the village and our first good mission, I'm not going back." Naruko said.

"Naruko are you crazy?" Sakura said, joining the conversation. "We need to go back! You're wounded!"

"I don't need to go back! I'm fine!" Naruko protested.

Tanzuna came out then and told them the sad situation of his village. How they were controlled by Gato, and couldn't escape his grasp, not being able to defend themselves. The bridge was their only hope.

"See! We can't go back! We need to help these people. And I don't care what you guys say! I will help them, ttebayo!" Naruko cheered.

Sasuke sighed. "Hn."

"Well... if they want to, then I guess I do too." Sakura said.

"Alright, I suppose my team will continue with you then." Kakashi said, and they started walking down the road.

Sasuke remembered Naruko's wound at that moment, and turned to say something to her, but saw an astonishing sight. Her wound was closing itself up! It was smoking lightly as it knitted itself together, closing it up by itself, and she didn't even seem to notice.

"Naruko," He whispered. "How are you doing that?" Pointing to her hand.

"Huh? This? I've always healed like this, not sure why though." She said, shrugging.

Sasuke was kind of dumbstruck about it, but he liked the fact that Naruko healed at an accelerated rate, she would be safer that way.

Soon enough, Naruko looked up again and quickly threw a kunai into the bushes, shocking everyone around her.

She went to the bushes, only to find a rabbit nearly having a seizure with a kunai pinned above its head.

"Oh no!" She said, dropping to her knees and hugging the bunny. "I'm so sorry bunny! I didn't know it was you! I thought you were some enemy ninja!"

"Great job Naruko, you scared the thing half to death!" Sakura said, throwing her hands in the air.

'A white rabbit? In the middle of Summer? It must have been raised to use as a replacement!' Kakashi thought, before he heard the tell tale sound of a whiz of a sword. "Get down!" He yelled.

Every one dove to the ground as a huge sword swung overhead and embedded itself with a 'thunk' in a tree. A person appeared with their back to them on the handle of the sword. His face was turned to them though, and he had bandaged the lower half of his face.

"Hmmm, the legendary Copy nin Kakashi, what an honor." He said.

"Zabuzza Momochi, the Demon of the Mist." Kakashi said.

"Ah, so I'm famous now? How delightful." Zabuzza said.

"Get back, this guy's not someone you can deal with. Protect Tanzuna and leave this guy to me." Kakashi said, preparing to fight.

A battle ensued and the genin watched in amazement as two Jounin went toe to toe, Sasuke getting the surprise of his life when Kakashi revealed a Sharingan in his right eye. Though it seemed like it didn't turn out in their favor, as Kakashi was caught in a water prison.

"Run!" He yelled to them. "You can't take this guy down! Continue the mission and take care of the bridge builder!"

"No way sensei! We won't abandon you!" Naruko yelled, flinging her hands into a sign that her father had made sure to teach her just before she left.

_Flashback_

"_Nii-san! Nii-san! I have my first C-rank mission today!" Naruko cheered, shaking Neji's arm._

"_Really? Where are you going, and what is the mission?" Neji asked._

"_I'm going to Wave Country! We're protecting some bridge builder on the way there and while he finishes the bridge! I'm so excited!" Naruko said, stuffing things into her bag as she talked to Neji._

_After triple checking she had everything, Naruko went into the kitchen to fuel up with some snacks before she left. She searched the cupboards absentmindedly as she hummed a tune happily._

"_Naruko?" Her father asked. "You're home. I thought you would still be on your second mission of the day." _

"_Tou-chan! I'm going on a C-rank today! It's gonna last for two weeks or more though, so I won't get to see you or anyone else again for the next few weeks." Naruko said._

"_Naruko, I'm worried about you going on a C-rank. While I know you did well, and I know you are a fine kunoichi, I can't help but worry about my daughter. I want to teach you a technique before you leave." He said._

"_Really?!" Naruko asked excitedly, she had learned some major Hyuga techniques from her father with Neji, but they hadn't learned too many._

"_Really, plus, since you have so much chakra, this will be perfect for you." He said._

* * *

_Naruko panted as she lay on the ground, completely drained of energy. She was sat up by her father who smiled at her lovingly, before he ruffled her hair._

"_You did a fantastic job Naruko. I've never seen someone master that technique so quickly!" He stated, making Naruko practically glow with pride. "How about we wrap up some of these wounds though?" _

_Naruko winced but nodded, then they began to wrap her cuts and bruises._

_Flashback End_

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" She called out, making 5 exact replicas of her.

She rushed towards Zabuzza who just laughed, making a water clone of himself. The water clone shot forward and hit Naruko with the side of his sword. Naruko flew back, blood coming out of her mouth. She wiped the blood away and shot up.

"I'm not done yet!" She yelled. She then made another cross sign and made 2 dozen clones, before they all charged at the clone.

They made a dome around him, and seemed to have won for a moment. That's when Zabuzza flung them away and Naruko skid back on the ground, searching through her bag.

"Sasuke!" She called out, throwing him a large shuriken.

Sasuke caught it and immediately realized her plan. He smirked at his girlfriend's plan and quickly jumped into the air, opening the large shuriken.

"Shadow Style: Demon Wind Shuriken!" He called out, throwing the shuriken towards Zabuzza.

The clone jumped over it, since Zabuzza had thought it was meant for the clone. However, it kept going, aiming straight for him. He jumped over it as well though, and smirked as he thought he had won.

"You can't beat me." He said.

But the shuriken behind him transformed into a red-haired girl who threw a kunai straight towards him.

Zabuzza was forced to release Kakashi, breaking the jutsu he had cast to contain the fellow Jounin. Kakashi and him broke out into another battle, and Naruko climbed out of the river, running over to where the rest of her team was.

She shivered and chattered her teeth coldly. Damn! That water had been colder than she thought! She grabbed her bag, hoping her team could do it without her know, and ran into the forest, where she quickly changed into dry, warm clothes.

When she came back out, she saw Zabuzza on the ground, a boy standing next to him and saying something. Wait a second! That mask! He was a hunter nin! But, he was like, her age! How could he already be a hunter nin?

The boy flew away and Naruko asked how a kid her age could possibly a hunter nin. Kakashi explained that sometimes people younger than her were stronger than him. It's just the way the world worked.

"Come on." Tanzuna said. "We're almost to Wave, we will stay at my house once we get there." He said.

"Great." Kakashi said, before he fainted, dropping to the ground.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura and Naruko called out.

They checked him, finding that he just fainted of chakra exhaustion, and Tanzuna carried him the rest of the way to Wave country.

The group quickly found themselves in Wave country, where they had a quick introduction to Tanzuna's daughter and grandson before asking to go to bed.

* * *

Ziiiiippppp!

The sleeping bag sounded as Naruko zipped her bag up with Sasuke's so they were combined. She crawled in and made herself comfortable, while Sasuke was still in the bathroom.

"Ne! Sasuke! Stop taking so damn long! I wanna sleep and I can't with the light on!" She called out to him, Sakura already asleep in her bag.

Sasuke spit into the sink and cleaned of his toothbrush. "Yeah yeah, I'm coming." He said, flicking off the light and getting into the combined sleeping bags.

Naruko snuggled into his chest, taking in a deep breath of Sasuke's scent, which she thought was probably the best smell in the world. She felt Sasuke wind his arms around her and put his face into her hair. She smiled lightly and fell asleep blissfully, happy that the day was finally over.


	8. Precious People

"When do you think Kakashi-sensei is gonna wake up?" Sakura asked her two teammates as they sat around the table.

"I'm not sure, it's been a couple of days, he should probably wake up soon." Naruko said. "What do you think Sasuke?"

"Hn." He said.

"Kids!" Tsunami called. "Kakashi-san is awake."

The team went upstairs and found their sensei awake in his bed. He explained that he thought that Zabuzza was actually still awake. The trio was shocked. Zabuzza was alive? But how?! They had seen him get killed!

"I need to train you kids to get you ready for when he comes back, so go get ready to train." Kakashi said, getting up with the help of crutches.

* * *

"Today, I will teach you three how to climb trees." Kakashi said.

"But sensei! We already know how to climb trees!" Sakura said.

"I know, but I'll be teaching you how to climb trees without your hands." Kakashi said.

"Without our hands?! That's impossible!" Sakura said.

"Is it?" Kakashi asked, before heading towards the tree, putting his foot on it, then continuing to walk up the tree. He got to a branch roughly 100 feet up off the ground. "See? You three will be able to do this too."

He dropped to the ground and explained to them how to do the exercise and then stood back as he watched his students attempt to do the exercise.

Naruko ran towards her tree and made it up a few steps before she fell back, marking the place she had made it to with a kunai before flipping back and landing gracefully on her feet in a crouch.

She looked over and saw Sasuke had made it about 15 steps before he fell. And Sakura was... wait, where was Sakura?

"Up here!" Sakura yelled, waving to the group as she giggled on the highest branch of her tree.

"Well, looks like Sakura has the best chakra control out of all of you. Surprising, girls are supposed to have the best control, but Sasuke made it farther than Naruko " Kakashi said. 'However, Sakura's chakra reserves look like a puddle next to Naruko's. And Sasuke's are more compared to a lake to Naruko's ocean.' He thought.

Naruko growled. "Ugh! Why can't I do that then?!"

"You just have more chakra." Kakashi said, shrugging.

Naruko looked to her tree and scowled, before making another charge at it, making it one more step up. She fell back to the ground and looked at Sasuke, who was making about the same progress as her.

She stood up and walked over to Sakura, crouching next to the girl and leaning really close to her.

"Ne, Sakura, umm... how are you so good at this?" She asked.

Sakura giggled. "I don't know, I just do it."

"Could you give me some pointers on how you do it then?" Naruko asked.

"Sure, what you have to do it be completely focused. Feel the chakra pool in the center of your feet and then go straight for the tree. It'll work, I promise." Sakura said.

"Thanks Sakura-chan!" Naruko said, going back to her own tree.

She did as Sakura said and found herself going up, up, and farther up the tree. She was ecstatic! That's when she lost control and started to fall. She slashed the area and fell back towards the Earth, grinning in triumph when she land gracefully in a crouch.

"Yes!" She cheered. She saw she had made quite a bit of progress, her mark probably equal with Sasuke's now.

She was making progress again, but it was slow as she tried to keep getting it just right. She was ahead of Sasuke by a few feet now, and was happy she was doing so good.

Sakura left, going back to the house now that she was out of chakra, and amazed that Naruko and Sasuke still seemed full of energy. Well, they would be back later, probably just as exhausted as she felt.

Naruko closed her eyes and pooled the chakra in the pits of her feet. Yes! This was it! She was going all the way up this time! She knew it! She ran towards the tree.

"Hey, Naruko." Sasuke said.

The distraction made Naruko lose all of her focus, and she tripped face first into the ground, eating some dirt. She hoisted herself up on her arms and spit out the dirt, turning to glare at her boyfriend.

"What!? I had just gotten it right!" She complained, sitting up and wiping the dirt smudges off her face.

"I was just... wondering what Sakura told you." he said, looking off to the side embarrassed. He didn't like throwing aside his pride to ask for help.

Naruko grinned and scooted closer to him. "Ahh, so the great Uchiha needs help huh?" She teased.

"Shut it." He said.

"Mou! I was just teasing you!" Naruko said before she kissed him.

Sasuke wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back passionately. Naruko found herself moaning and she twisted her fingers into Sasuke's hair. Sasuke licked her lower lip, asking for entrance, and she opened her mouth.

They fell back, Sasuke holding her to his chest as they lay on top of each other. They made out for a long time, they didn't exactly keep track. When they separated, they both panted, out of breath.

Naruko giggled. "You know, you're a really good kisser."

"You're no slouch either." Sasuke said, smiling as he tucked her bangs behind her ear.

"Mou, why can't you be this Sasuke all the time? I love it when you're like this." Naruko said, pecking him on the lips.

"Hn. It takes too much work to be like this around other people. You're the only one I can be like this with." Sasuke said. "The rest of the time, if I act like this it just feels... well, fake."

"Oh..." Naruko said, trailing off.

"Well, are you gonna tell me how to do this or not?" Sasuke asked, grinning.

"Sure!" Naruko said, jumping up and pulling him off the ground too.

Naruko told him the key to successfully climbing the tree and they set back to work on getting all the way to the top.

* * *

Naruko huffed and puffed as she crouched on top of the tree, looking over, she saw her boyfriend at the same place in his tree. She smiled her wide smile at him and hopped over to his tree, hugging him.

"We finally did it Sasuke." She said.

Sasuke's arms wound around her and he hugged her back. They both smiled and then jumped down to the ground.

"Ugh! I must look so messy though!" Naruko said, combing through her tangled red tresses.

"You look beautiful." He said, taking her hand and leading her back towards the house.

Naruko blushed as red as her hair. No way could he think that! She was all sweaty and grimy and tangled up. That's when she realized, Sasuke didn't care much about how people looked, he didn't base his judgments off of that. After all, if he did, there were much prettier girls he could have chosen.

This was her fairy tale moment that seemed to come straight from a book. Sasuke didn't mind how she appeared to be, because he knew exactly how he felt. He loved her for her, not for how she did her hair or how nice her clothes were, he didn't care about that stuff. He cared about her, she was what mattered.

Because she was his Naruko.

It was in that moment, that she realized that she was in love with Sasuke Uchiha.

She wanted to tell him, she wanted to scream to the world that she loved him. Maybe that would get all of those fangirls to back off! But you can't just to tell someone you loved them when you just figured it out one second. That would be awkward! It has to come out at the right time! She would have to wait, but she knew that soon, he would know that she loved him.

The door opened to the house and Sasuke let Naruko go in first, being the lady and all. They went in and sat down for dinner, which was just starting to be served. Naruko took her seat next to Sakura and Sasuke across from her.

Dinner was going as normal, and everything was going great until Sakura sealed the fate of the dinner.

"Hey, why is that picture torn?" She asked, pointing to a picture that was hung over the doorway.

The family looked down and Tsunami started to speak. "Inari's father was in that picture and after he... passed, we couldn't stand to have it there."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Sakura said, berating herself for bringing it up.

Inari stood up abruptly and started shouting. "You don't know what it's like! You can't be sorry since you don't know how it feels! I lost my dad! You can never know that pain! I had such a sad loss and I felt all alone, you think you understand but you don't!"

Naruko stood up then as well, grabbing Inari by the front of his shirt and lifting him off the ground, getting a tick in her forehead.

"You think we don't understand?! Kid, you don't know crap about being sad or alone! You think you had such a god damn bad childhood huh? You don't know half of it! Try being in one of our shoes! Because I know for a fact that there are two people in this room had much worse lives than you have! You think you know what it's like to be alone! You don't know it at all! You've always had your mom and grandpa over here! They've been here all along! But you don't appreciate it one bit! Let me just tell you that your life could be A LOT WORSE!" Naruko yelled, dropping him on the ground and storming out, slamming the door.

"Hm! Like she would know." Inari snorted.

Sasuke hands were already clenched tightly into fists, him biting his lip. It would have been bad enough had it just been himself he was thinking about, but he knew about Naruko's previous years as well. She had told him when they were younger, and once they started dating, she had told him that she had found out the reason for their hatred, and then proceeded to tell him what lay inside of her. She was right, this kid knew nothing, and the fact that he had said something like that when she was in the room pissed him off greatly.

He stood up and marched towards the door, opening it and taking a step outside before he heard his sensei.

"Sasuke, don't go after her. You of out of all of us should know how she gets when she's angry. Let her blow off some steam a bit." Kakashi said.

Sasuke turned back and glared at him. He wanted to help his girlfriend, but his sensei was right, it would only hurt him if he went out there, and he knew just how pissed off Naruko could get. He closed the door and walked upstairs, not saying a word.

Inari ran outside, desperate to get away from the scolding his mother would certainly give him.

"Inari! You come back here!" She yelled after him.

"Don't worry miss, I'll get him." Kakashi said, calmly walking out the door to go find the boy.

* * *

Kakashi sat down next to Inari, who was looking out over the water.

"I know it's painful for you two lose your father. I should know, I lost mine when I was about you age." Kakashi said, making Inari look up at him in shock. "But I've gotten over it now. Sure, I miss him, but I know he wouldn't want me to be bitter over his death. He would want me to be happy, and remember him fondly, so that's what I do."

"You... do?" Inari asked.

"Yes. But you really shouldn't say things like that around Naruko, that's worse than calling her tomato. If you weren't a child, she would have beaten you within inches of you life." Kakashi said. "Sasuke and Naruko... they've gone through a lot more trials than you have. Naruko was always hated by the village, and lost both of her parents the day she was born. The orphanages were awful to her, and sometimes beat her so bad, she was close to death. She was alone for the first 3 years of her life until she was adopted by a very caring family, but the village still dislikes her. Sasuke however, he lived well until her was about 8 years old, and then his entire family, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, everyone, was killed by his brother, leaving him all alone. Sure, he had friends, but he pushed them all away. It wasn't until very recently that he started to let people back in. So, remember, although you feel like you have a bad life, there are people with a lot worse ones than you."

Inari looked down at his feet. He hadn't known that, that girl really did have the right to be mad at him. But this guy was right too, he needed to remember his father fondly, and not just become a big crybaby whenever someone mentioned him.

"Don't tell Naruko and Sasuke I told you this okay? Let's just keep this our little secret." Kakashi said, standing up and patting his head before leaving.

* * *

Naruko woke up to the sounds of birds chirping, and sat up feeling very drained.

"Hello." She heard from beside her, where she turned to see the prettiest girl in her life.

"Oh, Hi." Naruko said.

"Are you alright? I didn't really expect to find anyone unconscious out here." She said.

"Oh! Hehe, I just went a bit overboard with training is all." Naruko said. "So, what are you doing out here?"

"I'm collecting herbs, would you like to help?"

"Sure." Naruko said, and started picking herbs with the girl. "So, who are the herbs for?"

"Oh, they're for someone who is precious to me. He has fallen ill, and these herbs will help him get better. Do you have a precious person?" The girl asked.

"Yeah, my family, but especially my nii-san, Neji. And my boyfriend, Sasuke. I love them all, they are definitely my precious people." Naruko said, smiling. "There's no better feeling than having a precious person, is there? They're always there for you, and no matter what, they stick by your side."

"Mm, precious people are the reason you fight, you want to protect them. They're what you're fighting for, and the most important person in you life." the girl said, before standing up and walking away, having all of the herbs she needed. "Oh, and by the way, I'm a boy."

Naruko's mouth fell slack. What?! But this boy was way prettier than any girl she'd ever seen!

"Goodbye, umm." He said.

"Naruko." She said.

"Very well, goodbye, Naruko." The boy said before disappearing.

Naruko sat back dumbstruck, before she felt a familiar chakra signature approaching, she turned to find her boyfriend leaning against a tree and smiling at her lightly.

"You okay? You didn't come back last night. I was worried." He said.

Naruko smiled and stood up, taking his hand and kissing his cheek. "I'm fine, thanks for worrying about me. It's nice to know someone will always be looking out for me."

"I'll always be here." Sasuke said, pecking her on the lips.

Naruko smiled and they walked back to the house. When they entered, they convinced Naruko to get some rest while the rest of them went to the bridge to protect Tanzuna.

* * *

Naruko woke up to the sounds of struggling downstairs and saw two men tying up Tsunami while Inari was cowering.

Naruko appeared in front of the two bandits rapidly, two quick for anyone without shinobi training to see. Her trench knives already in hand, she cut through the two bandits' necks, killing them. She then threw a sheet over their bodies so that Tsunami and Inari wouldn't have to see.

"Inari! I need to get to the bridge to help your grandfather! They're surely being attacked down there! Untie your mom and make sure you guys are safe! Got it?" She said to him.

"Yes Ma'am!" Inari barked out, starting to untie his mom as Naruko left.

* * *

Naruko raced to the bridge, where she saw a thick layer of fog covering some of it. That's when she saw Sasuke stuck in a sticky position, caught in between ice mirrors. She dropped down to the bridge.

"Have no fear! For Naruko is here!" She yelled, running towards Sasuke.

'Great! Naruko! Maybe, if I attack from the inside, and her from the outside, we can break these things!' Sasuke thought.

"Ne, Sasuke, I'm here!" She said, kissing his cheek.

Sasuke gasped, startled. "Naruko! What are you doing!? I could have gotten out of here if you stayed outside! Now we're both trapped in here!"

"Whoops..." She said.

That's when senbon started to rain down at them. Sasuke was able to dodge most of them, with his speed, but he quickly saw Naruko getting hit by quite a few.

Then, the boy threw a bunch of senbon were thrown straight towards Naruko, a lot of them meeting their mark. The girl fell to the ground, coughing up blood and Sasuke ran over to her.

"Sasuke." She whispered, before falling to the ground, desperately trying to get back up, but not being able to.

Sasuke's vision suddenly became clearer, and everything seemed to slow down. He looked into one of the mirrors and his eyes widened.

Sharingan.

He stood up and was able to fight the boy now, being able to predict his movements and actions. He was even able to singe the boy's pants!

But that's when everything messed up. He saw senbon fly, but not where he was expecting. They flew straight towards Naruko, and without thinking, he rushed straight towards her, determined to get her out of harm's way.

He felt the senbon rip through his clothes and impale him, feeling one go into his neck. He fell next to Naruko, who found the willpower to scramble up and hold him in his arms.

"Sasuke, you idiot! Why did you do that!?" She yelled at him, tears coming out of her eyes and landing on his face.

"Hn. I saved you, that's all that matters." He said. "Naruko, beat this guy. Live on, become the established kunoichi you said you would. Be the beautiful woman I know you are."

"Stop saying that! You sound like you think you're gonna die!" She yelled, tears now pouring out of her eyes.

"That's because Naruko, I know, and you know as well, that I'm going to die here. I can't survive a senbon to the neck. No one can..." He trailed off.

"No! NO! You can't die! I love you Sasuke! I love you! You can't die!" She screamed at him.

He smiled, blood and tears no on his face, he closed his eyes and used the last of his energy to lift his hand up and caress her cheek. "I love you too."

His hand hit the ground with a cold thump, making Naruko's eyes widened as the smile fell off his face, and the very subtle movement of his breathing stopped.

"No... No... No! No No No No! NO!" She yelled, shaking him. "Wake up! Sasuke! You have to wake up! I love you Sasuke! Don't leave me! You can't leave me like this! SASUKE!" She cried out.

She sat there for a minute, crying over her love's dead body, before she knew... he wasn't waking up. She'd never have that little dream of her's come true where little girls with black hair and blue eyes were running around. She would never be able to kiss him when he got home from a mission, or watch as he hugged their child. She would never get to walk down the aisle, and see him at the end. All of these things she could have seen so clearly, she would never get to see.

She lay Sasuke down on the ground and stood up, facing the boy who did this with her eyes closed.

"You..." She whispered, as her whisker marks grew thicker, and her red hair seemed to float up into the sky. She gained a red cloak of pure chakra around her form, and her teeth grew into fangs. She opened her eyes in a sharp movement, showing their blood red color.

**"I'LL KILL YOU!"**


	9. C-rank Complete

Naruko raced forward towards the mirror that the boy was in. He moved to avoid being hit, and watched as his unbreakable mirrors, were broken. His eyes widened as he hopped from mirror to mirror, trying to avoid the crazed red head who was lashing out at him.

'How?! How is she suddenly so much stronger?! What IS she?!' He thought alarmed.

It was at that moment that he lost his focus, and was hit by the girl. He tumbled back out of his mirror and onto the ground, as he was picked up by the neck by this girl.

His mask was broken, and it fell to the ground in pieces, revealing half of his face. The girl's eyes widened and he watched as the cloak of chakra disappeared.

"I-It's... you!" She said.

"Yes." He said.

"But... Why!? Why would you attack us?!" She asked.

"To serve my master." He said. "Why are you waiting? Kill me Naruko."

Naruko was shocked. "What?! Why!?"

"Because, I was merely a tool for my master. And now, since you have won, I'm just a useless tool. If I can't defeat someone, then I lose my use. I am no longer useful, and therefore, have no reason to exist." He said.

"What?! You can't think like that! You're not a tool! You're a person! A living breathing person! You have more purpose in life than to just fight!" She yelled at him.

"Naruko, I have no purpose other than to be a tool to Zabuzza. Kill me." He said.

"No... NO! I'm not gonna do it!" She yelled.

"But why? I killed your precious one, shouldn't you kill me in return?" He asked.

Naruko's eyes widened and she quickly felt them fill with tears. She dropped to her knees, releasing the boy who just sat there. She put her face in her hands and sobbed.

"Sasuke... Sasuke. No... why?" She sobbed. She lifted her face to look the boy in the eyes. "Why? Why did you have to kill him? I told you, in the woods, I told you... he's one of my precious people... so why?" She whispered.

"To serve my master." He said. He whipped his head up. "Naruko, never mind, I can still be of use!" He told her, before he rushed off.

* * *

The sound of chakra tearing through flesh echoed off the bridge.

Naruko looked up just in time to see the boy impaled by Kakashi's attack, saving his master at the cost of her own life. She then started to sob for the boy, she had never learned his name, but she felt strangely attached to him.

By the time Naruko looked up again from her hands, she watched as Zabuzza asked for a kunai from her sensei. She rushed forward and watched beside her sensei as Zabuzza killed many of the men in front of her, including that horrible man, Gato. The rest of the men rushed off and Naruko smiled sadly, at least the town was safe.

She looked up to her sensei. "Kakashi-sensei... I'm not sure how to say this, but... Sasuke is-"

"Naruko! NARUKO! LOOK! SASUKE! HE'S ALIVE!" She heard Sakura yelled from behind her. Naruko's head whipped around so fast, you could almost hear it crack.

That's when she saw Sasuke sit up slowly and rub his head. She felt tears stream down her face as she flew towards him.

She slides on her knees at just the right time so she's next to him. She grabs his shoulders and shakes him wildly, while slapping him in the face. "YOU IDIOT! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU! MAKING ME WORRY LIKE THAT!" She screamed at him, before she kissed the living daylights out of him.

Sasuke was still feeling pretty weak, but he managed the strength to raise his hand and knot it in her hair as he kissed her back.

Sakura sat there dumbfounded as it all clicked into place. Why Sasuke had gotten up to go after Naruko when she had ran off the night before. Why his brow always seemed to furrow in worry when Naruko got hurt during training. Why they had been cuddling as they slept on the day they officially became ninjas. Naruko and Sasuke were... dating.

It broke her heart but at the same time, she realized that Sasuke would never have liked her anyways. He always flat out rejected her and never payed her the time of day. He had always seemed annoyed by her, and once they got on a team together, he would almost never work with her anyways since she always made moves on him. She had however, caught him staring at Naruko on more than one occasion in class and while they were training.

Naruko and Sasuke stopped kissing and Naruko just hugged him tightly, curling her fingers in his hair and sobbing onto his shirt.

"I-I I t-t-thought y-y-you w-were g-gone! I-I w-was s-s-so a-afraid y-you w-were d-dead!" She sobbed.

Sasuke rubbed circles in her back and was whispering to her. "Shh... It's okay, I'm fine see? Everything's alright."

Sakura blushed as she was being a third wheel, and she quickly stood up and walked over to her sensei.

* * *

Naruko sighed happily as she walked hand in hand with her very much alive boyfriend down the bridge. That C-rank was certainly NOT how she expected. HAH! Neji had never had a mission like that! She couldn't wait to brag when she got home!

Sasuke just walked beside his girlfriend, content with her being happy and safe. It didn't matter if he died or not, because she would have been safe.

Sakura was in a bit of a sad mood. She really hadn't done anything during the mission, while Sasuke and Naruko had been amazing. Plus, Sasuke and Naruko were dating now. Why didn't her friend even tell her?

* * *

The team found themselves back in Konoha soon enough and Kakashi told them he would report to the Hokage, and they would meet at the usual place for training the next day.

Naruko went home and was excited to see her family. It had been 3 weeks, and that's the longest she had ever been away from them.

She opened the door and stopped, just taking everything in. She closed her eyes and just took in the familiar smell and sounds of her house.

"Nee-chan!" She heard called, and opened her eyes to see her little sister running towards her.

Naruko giggled as she caught her sister and put her on her hip.

"Hey imouto. Did you miss me?" She asked.

"Yeah, I really missed you nee-chan! We all did! Especially Neji-nii-san, he was all pouty!" Hoshiko said.

Naruko laughed. "Was he?"

"Mhm!" She said.

"Well I'll just have to go see him, now won't I?" Naruko asked. "Nii-san? Are you home?"

"Naruko?" She heard Neji's voice from deep in the house.

"I'm home!" She called, putting Hoshiko down and dropping her bag full of dirty clothes on the floor.

"Imouto." Neji said, smiling as he leaned against the entrance way to their living room.

"Nii-san." Naruko said, walking forward and hugging her brother.

"Naruko! You're home!" Her mother cried, before clasping onto her child and hugging her to death.

"Kaa-san! Can't...breathe!" Naruko said as she was being hugged.

"Oh, sorry honey. I just missed you so much! My baby was gone for 3 whole weeks!" She said.

"Come on! Let's sit at the table! I'll tell you all about my mission!" Naruko said, walking with her family to the dining room.

* * *

Poof!

"Kakashi-sensei! You're late!" Sakura complained.

"Maa, Maa. I have an alibi this time." Kakashi said, holding out Chunin Exam forms.

Naruko screamed before latching onto her sensei. "I LOVE YOU KAKASHI-SENSEI!" She yelled.

Kakashi chuckled before getting the girl off of him. "See? I can have a reason to be late once in awhile."

"Yes! This most definitely a reason to be late!" Naruko said.

"Now, the Chunin Exams are in a few days. Whether you chose to enter or not is your own choice, but remember, they can be dangerous. If you want to be in them, hand in your forms and meet on Sunday at 8:00 a.m. Room 301 in the academy." Kakashi said, before poofing away.

"Chunin Exams! Chunin Exams! Chunin Exa-, Wait! We were supposed to train!" Naruko complained.

"I guess we're not going to anymore." Sakura said.

"Hn. I'm going home, I"ll pick you up later." Sasuke said, the last part to Naruko, and then walked away from the two girls.

"Ne, Naruko, why don't we talk for awhile?" Sakura suggested.

"Sure Sakura, let's walk though, at least that's SOME exercise." Naruko said.

The two walked down the road in silence for a minute, before Sakura decided to speak up.

"Ne, Naruko... why didn't you tell me you and Sasuke were together?" Sakura asked, looking down at her feet.

"Oh... I'm not sure... I guess... I guess that I felt like I was betraying you by going out with him, but I still wanted to be friends with you." Naruko said.

"You could have just told me, I would have understood... it's not like I would ever have a chance with someone like him anyways." Sakura said.

"What? Why would you think that?" Naruko asked.

"Because, You and Ino... you two have always been smarter, and prettier, and better kunoichi than me. I've known since the day I met you two." Sakura said.

"That's not true Sakura." Naruko said.

"Yes it is! You and Sasuke! You two were the perfect team in Wave! He beat those two Chunin, and then you two freed Kakashi-sensei and beat that boy on the bridge! All I did was stand around..." She said, whispering the last part.

"Sakura, did you see what I did during the first battle? I froze up, and the enemy did damage to me. It's not like I'm the perfect shinobi or anything." Naruko said. "Besides, I'm not pretty."

"Are you kidding me? You're so pretty! You have such pretty hair and flawless skin! Not to mention a figure any girl would kill for! And you don't even have to do anything. I spend hours on my hair and face, and have to diet all the time, and you're still way prettier than me." Sakura said.

Naruko stopped the girl and held her in place by the shoulders. "Sakura, the only reason you think that is because you lack self confidence. You're beautiful! Any guy would be lucky to have you, it's just that Sasuke wasn't the guy for you. But trust me! There are definitely guys out there that think you're beautiful! You just have believe in yourself!"

"Thanks Naruko." Sakura said, hugging the girl.

* * *

"OUT OF THE WAY!" They heard as three little kids bounded towards them, making them stare at them in surprise.

One of the boys, who was wearing a ridiculously long scarf bounded right into Naruko.

"So soft..." He murmured, rubbing his head back and forth in whatever was so soft.

That's when he looked up to see a girl with red hair that floated straight up into the sky, and had a tick mark on her forehead. He also noticed the things that were so soft were her boobs.

"I'm gonna kill you!" Naruko yelled.

"You can't kill me, I'm Konohamaru Sarutobi!" The boy said, smirking.

"I don't care who you are kid, I'm gonna kill you no matter what!" She yelled.

The boy's eyes widened and he immediately ran away from the raging girl, his friends and Sakura following after them.

"AHHH! SAVE ME!" Konohamaru yelled as he ran down the street.

"YOU'RE GONNA PAY KID!" Naruko yelled, running after him even faster, she wanted to just pummel the kid, it didn't matter how old he was anymore.

Konohamaru rounded a corner and ran straight into a boy, who lifted him up off the ground.

"Well... who is this annoying squirt." The boy said.

Naruko stopped as she saw the foreign boy, he had a hitaite on that had the mark of the Sand on it.

'Sand ninja. This could be trouble.' She thought.

"Konohamaru!" Moegi called.

"Naruko, we have to get that kid away from them." Sakura whispered to her teammate as she stopped next to her.

"I know." Naruko whispered back, biting her lip.

"I think I'll have fun beating you up kid. After all, no one runs into me and gets away with it." The boy said.

"Kankuro, you better not get us in trouble." His girl companion said.

"You better put him down." Naruko called to them. "He's the Hokage's grandson, you'd get in a lot of trouble if you beat him up."

"Oh really? If that's true, then why would you be chasing after him threatening to beat him up?" Kankuro asked.

"Because, the old man's got a soft spot for me, so I can get away with it. Plus, I'm from this village." Naruko said.

"Kankuro! Put the kid down already!" The girl growled at him.

"Oh shut it Temari." Kankuro said.

Suddenly, a rock flew into the scene and hit Kankuro's hand, making him drop Konohamaru, who scurried back towards his friends.

"You should be careful who you mess with, Sand Swine." Sasuke said as he leaned against the tree he was standing on, tossing a rock up and down in his hand.

"Sasuke!" His teammates called.

"What did you call me?" Kankuro asked, narrowing his eyes.

"You heard me." Sasuke said, throwing the other rock towards Kankuro's face.

Kankuro caught it. "You should take a lesson from your own words kid, be careful who you mess with." he said, as he took a giant thing wrapped in gauze off his back.

"Kankuro, this is getting out of hand! You're not really gonna use Crow are you?" Temari asked.

"Hn, I'll do what I wa-"

"Kankuro, you're a disgrace to our village." They heard a cold voice rasp.

Sasuke took in a quick breath and glanced out of the corner of his eye to see a boy standing upside down right next to him.

'What?! How did I not even sense him?' Sasuke thought.

"G-Gaara!" Kankuro gasped. "I-I I wasn't doing anything!"

"Shut up Kankuro. If you do another thing like this... I'll kill you." Gaara said, before he shunshined to the ground next to his teammates.

Naruko got a tick in her forehead from the boy's comment. "Hey! How can you say that to your own teammate!?"

"I'll say what ever I want to my teammate, whether I choose to threaten them or not is my choice." Gaara said.

"Bastard." Naruko muttered under her breath.

"What's your name?" He asked, narrowing his eyes at the girl.

"Naruko Hyuga. Yours?"

"Gaara Sabaku. And you, in the tree, what's your name?"

"Sasuke Uchiha." Sasuke said, before jumping down and putting a protective arm around Naruko.

The Sand team walked around the corner, leaving the team on the street, since Konohamaru and his friends were long gone.

"Jeez. What was his problem?" Naruko asked.

"Who knows?" Sakura said, sighing.

"There's one thing I know about that guy. I definitely want to fight him." Sasuke said, smirking.


	10. Enter! Chunin Exams!

"Ne! Ne! Sasuke! Do you think we'll become Chunin?" Naruko asked, poking her boyfriend in the ribs as they walked towards the academy together.

"Who knows, maybe. There will certainly be a lot of strong people there though." Sasuke said.

"I hope we do. It would be so cool! Hehe! Imagine if I became a ninja and Neji-nii-san didn't!" Naruko said, giggling.

"Sasuke! Naruko!" Sakura called, waving from the academy doors as the two approached.

"Hey Sakura!" Naruko called back to her, waving with a wide smile. Then she ran up to the girl and jumped up and down. "We're doing it! We're actually taking the Chunin Exams!"

Sakura giggled. "Calm down Naruko, yes, we are, but they'll be dangerous, so we have to focus."

"Un!" Naruko said with a nod of her head.

The trio walked into the academy and up the stairs when they saw a fight with a bunch of kids around it. They made their way through the crowd only to see her brother's team there. Getting beaten too!

But something wasn't right to Naruko... the way they were acting, it wasn't like them, they were stronger than that. She was about to bring this up to her teammates when she saw a fist fly towards her brother, and immediately lost all common sense.

She ran in front of her brother and caught the fist, after all, she was fast, faster than her brother.

"Imouto, what are you doing?" Neji asked to her lowly, if people knew they were family, they would surely use it as an advantage.

"Not bad, for a girl." The boy said, smirking.

Naruko got a tick on her forehead and her eye twitched. "What did you say to me?" She asked quietly.

"I said, not bad, for a weak little girl anyways!" He taunted, smirking.

"Oh crap." Neji muttered, face palming.

"Oh... isn't that nice of you to say." Naruko said, before she smiled sweetly and clenched her fist tightly. She slammed it into his jaw and flew back and through a wall. People stared in amazement and fear as her red hair was suddenly floating upwards and she started yelling. "You bastard! You stupid sexist bastard! I'm gonna kill you for saying that!"

"It's the Red Hot Habanero!" She heard someone yell from the crowd.

The boy who was punched through the wall who had stood up, suddenly backed away in fear. "Wait, you're that chick!?"

"YEP! AND YOU'RE GONNA GET THE BEATING OF YOU LIFETIME TTEBAYO!" She screamed, before her brother grabbed the back of her shirt and sighed.

"Naruko, calm down." He said.

"What?! Did you hear what he said to me?! And he tried to punch you! This guy deserves a beating!" Naruko exclaimed.

"I know, but we need to get to the room before we're disqualified." Neji said.

Naruko growled before putting her fists down to her sides. "You got lucky!" She said to the boy before going to her own team and walking to the room where they were supposed to go.

* * *

"Saaassuuukkkeee-kuuunnn!" They heard squealed before Ino glomped Sasuke.

Naruko growled under her breath and only Sakura heard it, making her giggle mentally.

"Ne, Ino, you might wanna get off of him. Sasuke's dating someone." Sakura said harshly, she was protective of her teammates, plus, she had to admit, the two made a cute couple.

"What Forehead-girl! Are you trying to tell me Sasuke is dating YOU? Cause I know he would never date you since I'M here." Ino said.

"No, he's not dating me, but he is dating-"

"ME! I don't care that your my friend right now Ino! Get your paws off my boyfriend!" Naruko said, stomping her foot angrily.

"YOUR boyfriend?!" Ino asked in shock.

"Yes Ino." Sasuke said.

"EHHHHH!?" She shouted.

Sasuke was honestly having this chick who wasn't his girlfriend on his back, so he simply leaned back so she fell off and walked to Naruko and took her hand.

"Wait! So this is real?!" Ino shrieked.

"Yep!" Naruko said, kissing Sasuke on the cheek making him smile lightly at her.

Ino was suddenly very gloomy and hugged her knees to her chest on the ground her teammates walking over.

"Hn, troublesome." Shikamaru said as Choji munched on a bag of chips.

"Well! Look who's here!" Kiba shouted as his team walked over to the two teams.

"Hey Dog Breath." Naruko said. She had never really liked Kiba, she hated him, actually. Maybe it was because she grew up with two not so loud boys?

"Hi Tomato!" Kiba mocked.

Naruko got a tick in her forehead and was on the verge of just killing Kiba when Sasuke silently squeezed her hand, making her calm down and keep a level head.

"Maybe you should stop attracting so much attention to yourselves." A silver-haired guy said to them.

The group looked out at the crowd only to see EVERYONE looking at them. Oops.

"Here, since you're all newbies, I'll help you out. My name's Kabuto by the way." The silver-haired guy said.

He then took out a stack of cards and showed them to the group, they were all blank on one side and the other side was decorated.

"Hey, why do you have cards if they're just blank?" Sakura asked.

Kabuto laughed. "They're not blank, they just need my chakra to activate them. These are cards that have information on anyone you want, so, give me a name."

"Gaara Sabaku." Sasuke said.

"Aw, you have his name? No fun." Kabuto said, taking out a card and spinning it around with one finger until information appeared in it. "Let's see, Gaara Sabaku, a Sand shinobi, He's got two siblings, who happen to be his teammates, Temari and Kankuro. His team has completed 20 D-ranks, 4 C-ranks, and, wow! 2-B ranks, I wonder how he swung that! The only other information on here is that he's come back from every mission unharmed."

"What?! How does he come back from a B-rank unharmed? Even Jounin have trouble with that!" Sakura said.

"Who knows?" Kabuto said. He then went on to explain the number of people in the exam from each nation and why and so on and so on. That's when, a sound team that was listening in and didn't like what he was saying, decided to step in.

The team went forward and one of them took a punch at Kabuto who stepped away and avoided it, smirking. But then he quickly keeled over and barfed, making everyone confused.

* * *

A large man shunshined into the room. "I'm your proctor for this exam, Ibiki Morino. Now, get up here and take your numbers and sit down maggots!" He yelled at them.

They all scurried to their numbers and Naruko found her seat. She sat down and noticed Neji was sitting in the back row, she turned and waved at him, smiling widely. He smiled back at her and gave her a small wave. She then looked and found Sasuke a few row in front of Neji. She waved to him as well and saw him smile slightly at her, looking her in the eyes. She blushed and turned around, and realized someone now occupied the seat next to her.

"Oh hello-" She began to say.

"Naruko." She heard bit out harshly.

She narrowed her eyes. "Hinata." She acknowledged just as coldly.

Naruko had felt some sympathy to her cousin in the academy, but now, she hated the bitch. Hinata had grown to hate the head family after her mother had died from some disease after giving birth to her little sister. Apparently, some main family Hyuga had an affair with her mother, but no one knew who. So after Hanabi, he sister, was born, her mother died, and no one claimed her little sister as their child.

Due to this, Hinata had to take care of her little sister by herself. She hated the main family as no one knew who it was. Sure, there were several people who they thought it was, but no one in particular, just some of the lower main branch men.

Ever since then, not only was Hinata mean to the main family, but especially towards her and Neji. For some reason, they were the ones she blamed the most. Therefore, Neji and her had grown to hate Hinata as well. The saddest thing was that she was not a prodigy whatsoever.

Hinata had always been weak, she had never been able to actually get the Hyuga techniques down, always failing and being seen as a true failure by the elders. Maybe that was why she hated them so much.

Naruko and Neji had always been prodigies ever since they were little. Neji had been gifted with the most amazing Byakugan yet, being able to see chakra points, and was always able to master new techniques faster than almost every other Hyuga. Naruko, even though she didn't have Byakugan, she might have been truly the most gifted. She was still allowed to learn Hyuga techniques, and through the help of Neji, she was able to fight just like him. Except, she didn't need her vision to do it, and to shut down all of a person's chakra points.

Naruko ended her train of thought when the proctor stood up and explained how the test would be taken. Naruko was finding something a bit fishy about the test, but couldn't figure out what. She shrugged, maybe it would come to her at some point.

When Naruko got her paper her eyes widened, she didn't know a single one of these! Sure, she wasn't as good as her boyfriend or her brother at retaining knowledge, but she couldn't be this bad! Right?

She slammed her head down and looked at Hinata in envy as she started scribbling things down on the paper. Damn! The one area her cousin could beat her in!

She turned around and saw Sakura writing as well, and saw Sasuke smirking. Though it wasn't his confident smirk, it was more of his _'shit, I have no idea what to do, but I'll make other think I do' _smirk, that he used very rarely.

She sighed and slumped her head down on the desk, trying to figure out what to do. What was she supposed to do? She didn't have the smarts! Plus they said not to cheat! If only she could cheat in some way that she wouldn't get caught! After all, that's what cheating was!

Wait a second... cheat without getting caught. She narrowed her eyes and looked around the room. She saw Dog Breath's dog looking around and quietly yipping to him as he wrote down answers. Neji had his Byakugan activated rows behind her. Tenten had mirrors on the ceiling she took into account and saw her and Lee glancing up at them. Then she saw Sasuke equip his Sharingan and start copying the movements of someone in front of him.

That was it!

They COULD cheat, they just had to do it well! In a way that they wouldn't get caught. Naruko thought of what she may be able to do to get answers and snapped her fingers as she came up with the answer.

She quickly shot a line of chakra to the mirrors on the ceiling that Tenten was using and turned them to her, so she could view them. Taking a mental note of all the answers, she quickly wrote them down on her own paper.

She kicked back and waited for the test to be over as she had already finished writing, and watched as Ibiki started to psych them out by explaining the 10th question to them. She wasn't afraid though.

She was Naruko Hyuga! She could do anything!

She slammed her fists on the table and stood up. "Listen up, cause I ain't gonna say it twice! My name's Naruko Hyuga and I'm not afraid of your stupid tests! Bring it on! I'll pass it with no trouble!"

* * *

**Hey guys! New story up! Just wanted to tell you guys about it! I'm excited for it almost excited as I was for this one! (Though a little bit less, because I was REALLY pumped for this story). I'm getting to a point where updates might be slower than before though. Not only do I have a lot of work and tests coming up, but I have a few projects and a paper as well. But the thing that slows me down the most is that honestly the biggest weakness I have as a writer is definitely writing battle scenes. I have absolutely zero motivation to write them, and they have always seemed boring to me. So, yeah, basically, slower updates.**

**NEW STORY!**

**THE RED FLASH**

**What if Kushina had survived the Kyuubi attack? What if Naruko was born as a red head? What if the Flying Thunder God was just a bloodline, not a jutsu? Everything would have changed, and Naruko would be a completely different person. Raised among the sand rather than the leaves, she would also be changed. And what happens when she meets another little red head? FEM!Naru x Gaara  
**

**Link:**

s/9784687/1/The-Red-Flash

**Another way to get through is to go to my Bio!**

**PEACE!**

**~narutoobsessedgurl**


	11. The Second Exam! Part 1!

**HAPPY HALLOWEEN! HERE'S A CHAPTE JUST FOR YOU GUYS!**

* * *

Schling!

Naruko took in a sharp breath as a kunai cut her cheek.

"Pay attention kid." The proctor said before appearing behind her. "You're gonna need the information."

Naruko felt a shiver go up her back before a fist connected with the proctor's head. The woman flew back and into some other kids who fell to the ground.

Sasuke cracked his knuckles as he looked at the proctor with cold eyes. "Don't touch her. Ever." He warned. He had lost enough people already, he would NOT, let her hurt his Naruko.

"You listen kid! If you don't shut up and behave right now, I'm going to gut you and hang you up on a pole by your intestines!" The proctor yelled, making several kids go green at the thought.

"Hn. Like you could, I just punched you after all." He said, turning away from her to his original position.

The proctor got a tick in her forehead. "I wasn't paying attention then! If I were to REALLY take you on, I would kill you so hard you wouldn't know what to do! First I would-"

"Anko, don't make them puke." one of the Chunin said from the front.

"Hmph! Whatever!' She said, crossing her arms and returning to the stage to finish her instructions. They gave out the consent forms and Naruko leaned against on of the trees nearby as she looked it over. She smiled and looked up at the branch above her, where Sasuke had positioned himself protectively above her.

"Ne, Sasuke, you gonna sign it?"

"Of course. Why would I come this far to not sign it?"

"True." Naruko said, looking back at hers. She bit her lip. What if she wasn't good enough? There were surely ninja stronger than her here. What if she screwed up? She couldn't imagine dying, it seemed impossible. What if... what if Sasuke died? Or Neji?!

"Naruko." Sasuke whispered, caressing her face. "Don't worry about me and Neji."

"I don't know what you're talking about." She faked.

"Hn. I know you, you're such a worry wort. Don't worry, me and Neji are big boys, we can take care of ourselves." Sasuke grinned.

"Haha. You know I'm worried yet you tease." She said.

"Look, we'll be fine okay? Have confidence in Neji to take care of himself, and our team to take care of ourselves. Well, maybe not Sakura, she can't do much." Sasuke said.

"Hey! Don't be mean to Sakura!" She defended her friend.

"What? You know it's true. She did nothing in Wave." He said.

"Yes she did! She protected Tanzuna!" Naruko said.

"From what? You and I defeated all of the enemies that Kakashi didn't get to. She had no one to defend against." He mocked.

"Well that's because we didn't let her! I'm sure that Sakura can pull her weight! We just didn't give her a chance!" Naruko defended. She buried her face in Sasuke's neck. "Please don't be mean to her, Sakura's my friend." She whispered.

"Hn."

"Why so cold?"

"Hey guys!" Sakura cheered as she walked over.

"Oh.." Naruko whispered. "Be nice." She told him.

"Hey Sakura!" She cheered. "Ready to go in?"

"Yep! We need to go get our scroll though!" Sakura said.

"Come on Sasuke, don't be a slouch!" Naruko reprimanded.

Sasuke sighed before standing up and kissing her on the cheek, and furrowing his brow over the cut that rested on it.

* * *

Naruko looked at the Heaven scroll. "Alright, who gets it?"

"Umm... Naruko, I think you should take it." Sakura said.

Naruko's eyes widened. "What? No! I mean, I don't think I'm that good!"

"Please! You can fight with a blindfold on! You're probably the best on our team! Take it." Sakura said, smiling.

Naruko smiled. "Thanks, but... I think Sasuke should take it... I am REALLY bad at keeping things, so if I carry it... It's probably gonna end up somewhere in the forest. Sasuke, you wanna take it?"

"Hn." He said.

Naruko rolled her eyes as she slipped her hand into his and they walked out. Sasuke slipped the scroll into his kunai pouch before they walked out.

The team stood at their gate, and Naruko couldn't help but be nervous. She looked to Sasuke and he nodded, confusing Sakura.

Reaching into her back pocket, Naruko took out her blindfold. Sasuke tied it around her eyes and she let out a deep breath before reaching out with her chakra.

"The closest team is 4 gates away, though I recognize the signatures. It's Dog Breath's team. While I don't like him or Hinata, I'm not willing to attack them. Let's see... nii-san's team is on the other side of the forest. I can only tell because I know his signature so well. They probably did that so it will be harder for him to help me or vice versa. Ooh! There's one team about a half mile away! If we go diagonal, we can probably catch them in about an hour!" Naruko said.

"Good. We'll go with them." Sasuke said. "Naruko, we need you to keep tracking them."

"Okay, but I can't tree hop at the same time as tracking someone from far away. I can't sense stuff properly." Naruko said.

"It's fine. I'll carry you." Sasuke said, taking her onto his back. He blushed a bit as he held onto her thighs. She doesn't exactly cover them up with her short shorts after all.

The gates opened and the team rushed in. Naruko shouted out commands for which way to go and they were quickly making a plan as they ran.

"Now, we need to make a password." Sakura said.

"It needs to be complicated, so the enemy won't know about it." Naruko said.

"I got it." Sasuke said. "Now I'm only gonna say this once, so pay attention. A ninja waits until the time is right. When the enemy sleeps and drops his guard. When his weapons lie forgotten in the stillness of the night. That is the moment for a ninja to strike."

"Got it!" Sakura said.

"Uhh... sure." Naruko said, not getting one word of what her boyfriend had said.

Suddenly, harsh winds racked the air, and Naruko found herself tumbling off into the woods.

"Naruko!" She heard yelled after her, but blacked out as he head smacked into a branch.

* * *

Naruko blinked awake and stared up at the sky, only to find a snake above her... a GIANT snake. She screamed as the snake went down on her and swallowed her.

"Ewww! It's so gross in here!" She complained, before taking out her trench knives and stabbing at the thing. It wouldn't cut it however, and she found herself being sucked deeper into the snake.

She was between two layers of it's stomach and watched as a rice ball she had brought disintegrated.

'If I don't get out of here soon, I'll end up like that rice ball! But how!? I can't think of any way to do it!' She thought. She felt tears well in her eyes and she regretted her decision to come into the forest.

"NEJI! SASUKE! SOMEONE HELP ME!" She screamed as she broke out into hysterics. This was it, she was really going to die in here. She would never see her boyfriend, or family, or friends ever again! This was it. She closed her eyes tightly and waited for death to come.

* * *

Neji stopped dead in his tracks. He looked towards the way he had sworn he heard his voice called.

"Neji? What's wrong?" Tenten asked.

Neji equipped his Byakugan and his eyes widened. He ran straight towards the horror he had just seen. It was a giant snake! And it had his sister inside of it!

"Hold on! I'm coming Naruko!" He called out.

* * *

A kunai went through the mouth of the snake, which roared out loudly. Naruko looked up in surprise. What was going on?

"LET GO OF MY IMOUTO!" She heard yelled. Neji! IT WAS NEJI!

"NEJI! HELP ME!" She yelled.

"I'M COMING IMOUTO!" He yelled as he attacked the snake.

* * *

"Ewww!" Naruko whined as she shaked the snake the guts off of her. "This is so gross! Nii-san, couldn't you have not made it explode?"

"Would you rather still be in there?" Neji asked.

"No." She said quietly.

"Well, there's your answer." He said, before putting a hand on her forehead. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I need to get back to Sasuke and Sakura though. An enemy blew me over here before I was swallowed up by that snake." Naruko said, standing.

"Blew you over?" Neji questioned.

"Yeah, some type of wind jutsu. It was really strong! It must have blown me a mile or two away!" Naruko exclaimed.

"That's not possible." Neji whispered, his eyes widening.

"Um... yeah it is, because, you know, it happened to me." Naruko said.

"No, I mean, no genin should have the amount of chakra it needs to do a jutsu that high level. You're practically the only genin who could do that. So... why was that genin able to do it?" Neji wondered.

"What do you mean?" She asked, perplexed.

Neji started. "I think that your enemy, isn't a genin at all. I think that someone might be after one of your teammates, and since Sakura isn't from any important family..."

"Sasuke." Naruko whispered in horror.

Neji nodded. "We'll come with you, you'll need the help."

"No, no! You need to pass on your own! I can take care of it, in fact, I bet Sasuke already finished him off." Naruko said, but Neji knew she wasn't so sure of that by her body language and how she bit her lip.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, go ahead. Bye nii-san!" Naruko said as she jumped off into the trees.

* * *

Neji had two options, he could follow her, to make sure his friend and sister were alright, or he could leave. Considering if he did the former, his sister would be pissed and probably knock him out, he decided to continue on with his team, but keep an eye out for Naruko.

'Please stay safe, Naruko.' He thought as he left with his team.

* * *

"SASUKE!" Naruko yelled, catching the scroll which he had tossed towards the enemy and landing on a branch. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"Naruko, just give him the scroll." Sasuke said seriously.

"Yes child, give me the scroll." The guy said.

"No way!" Naruko said.

"Naruko this isn't a joke, we beat him." Sasuke said.

"I'm not just gonna give this away Sasuke!" Naruko exclaimed.

"Naruko! Give him the goddamn scroll NOW!" Sasuke demanded.

Naruko's eyes widened and she took a sharp intake of breath. Sasuke never freaked out like that and he never raised his voice at her. Just who was this guy? Naruko dropped her head to the floor.

"You're not the Sasuke I know." She said quietly.

"What?! What are you talking about?! Of course I am!" Sasuke said.

"NO YOU AREN'T!" She yelled, still looking down and clenching her fists. "The Sasuke I know would NEVER EVER give up his pride! You're not my Sasuke!"

Sasuke's eyes widened. What did she mean? He wasn't giving up his pride! He just didn't want to die!

"This is taking too long." The man said, and shot towards Naruko.

"NARUKO!" Sasuke yelled, shooting forward and blocking Naruko. Sasuke screamed in agony as the man bit down into his shoulder.

"SASUKE!" Naruko yelled as the man backed away and Sasuke fell to the ground. He gripped at his shoulder which had a red mark on it that seemed to be burning itself into his skin.

Naruko felt a wave of heat and anger wash over her. Her vision became sharper and gained a slightly red tint. She looked at Sasuke who looked at her, eyes wide while still yelling in pain. Her reflection showed in his eyes, and Naruko saw.

She had red, slitted eyes.

She looked at her hands as a red cloak started to form over her. She closed her eyes and let the power come forth. She felt this strength... Sasuke... she needed to protect him, she could do it, with the help of... this... thing.

She lost consciousness and the demon took over, making the cloak grow thicker. She let out a deep, throaty, dark chuckle.

"**You..." **the voice said, though it was obviously Naruko speaking, it was in a demonic voice. Her head shot up and stared at the man. **"Don't you EVER touch him! EVER! You're not allowed to touch him! ONLY ME!" **

She shot forward at the man and they got into an intense battle. They were both dodging, and no one was landing hits. Orochimaru had to admit, she was pretty good, but after a bit, he was getting tired of this game.

"Naruko... what... what happened to you?" Sasuke grunted out as he gripped his shoulder in pain.

Orochimaru lit his palm up with chakra and slammed it into the girl's stomach, effectively shutting off her chakra and making her fly back into a tree, her bones cracking, making her completely go unconscious.

"NARUKO!" Sasuke screamed, before gripping his shoulder and falling in pain. He quickly got out a kunai and managed to throw it so she was nailed to a tree. Sasuke fell to his stomach and slowly slipped unconscious.

'Sakura... please, make sure that Naruko doesn't die...' Sasuke thought as he fell into his deep sleep.


	12. The Second Exam! Part 2!

Sakura fretted over her two unconscious teammates worriedly. What was she going to do? She was no Naruko or Sasuke. She couldn't defeat an enemy single handedly. No way! She was not that good! She was a strategist, not a fighter!

She sighed and looked around at the traps she had set, they were all working. No one had come yet, but it was almost nightfall, and she knew it would be hard for her to stay up the night. She turned back to her teammates. Sasuke had a raging temperature, and Naruko was knocked out cold, no sign of waking up whatsoever.

* * *

Snap!

Sakura's head jerked up when the sound reached her ears. She had dozed off, what if someone HADN'T stepped on that branch!

She threw a kunai towards the sound as she spun around, only to be greeted by a terrified squirrel. She breathed a sigh of relief as it scampered away and picked up a stick. Jabbing it into her arm, but not enough to make her bleed, woke her up completely.

She changed Sasuke's towel and checked Naruko to see if she was near consciousness yet.

"Naruko! Naruko!" She whispered, shaking her teammate. It was useless, the girl slept like a log without provocation.

"Hehe, looks like the little girl needs her teammates to wake up heh?" A voice sounded behind her. Sakura flew around and saw a man standing before one of her traps with his teammates.

It was showtime.

* * *

Sasuke woke up in burning heat. He felt so hot that it was unbearable. He needed something to cool him down, it didn't matter what it was! He just needed something to calm this unbearable heat!

But then it changed... it suddenly felt... good. The heat took on a new kind of air, and it no longer felt unbearable... now... now he wanted more... What was this feeling? This feeling of power?

He opened his eyes and watched as violet chakra wrapped around his form, and he felt stronger than he EVER had, and he loved it. He rose to his feet and laughed maniacally. He lifted his head to stare at the enemies in front of him with blood red Sharingan eyes.

He spotted Sakura with injuries covering her, her hair brutally cut off and most of it on the ground. Who had done this to her? And where was Naruko? Was she okay?

The thought of the two people closest to him being hurt by these people made his blood boil. What had they done? Who did they think they were?!

"Sakura." Sasuke said. "Who did this to you?"

"Sasuke..." She said.

"I said who did this to you." He stated, harsher this time.

Sakura raised her hand and pointed to the guy who had injured her, unsure of what to do. What was up with him? What was this mysterious chakra?

"Hn, you think you can beat me kid?" The guy said. "Let me teach you a lesson." He raised his arms and shot air out of them, performing his jutsu.

"Zaku! Don't!" The other male of their team yelled.

It seemed almost as if Sasuke had teleported behind the guy and had his arms in his grasp. He pulled them behind the guy's back and put his foot on the guy's back.

"So, it seems that you're proud of these arms huh? What if I were to get rid of them for you?" Sasuke said coldly, pushing the guy's back forward.

"No! Please!" He said.

Sasuke smirked, shoving him forward, breaking his arms and making him release a bloodcurdling scream. Sakura sat roughly a hundred feet away, absolutely horrified.

Sasuke punched the woman behind him in the face, sending her back and through a tree, while the other teammate watched with wide eyes, he couldn't move, knowing he was next.

Sasuke sharply turned his head, looking straight towards the remaining man. He slowly started to walk towards him when he heard a voice.

"Sasuke!" Naruko called, standing up in her haze. "Stop!"

"Naruko." Sasuke whispered, turning to see her. She was disheveled and had tears pooling in her eyes for the enemies he had just hurt. She was too forgiving of people sometimes. He eyes were wide and obvious fatigue plagued her face, as well as confusion. He appeared before her and put a hand on her face, looking into her crystal clear blue eyes.

"Stop." She whispered.

The violet cloak receded from Sasuke's body and he fell limp, without the extra energy to support him, he couldn't hold himself anymore.

Naruko caught her boyfriend in her arms and held him up, while the man in front of them set his scroll down on the ground.

"Please, take it. Your team was the clear winner. I'll just take my teammates and leave, okay?" He said, gathering up his teammates and leaving them behind.

Sakura walked forward and picked up the scroll. "It's an Earth scroll." She said.

"And we still have our original Heaven scroll since I didn't let Sasuke give it to the creeper from... hey, just how long were we out?" Naruko said.

"About a day, not too long." Sakura said.

"We need to get to the tower." Sasuke said, taking a step forward but then falling to the ground.

"No way Sasuke! You can't even walk!" Sakura said.

"No, he's right." Naruko said. "We're already hurt enough, we don't need to stay out here and be more susceptible to attack."

"Well how's Sasuke supposed to get back?" Sakura asked.

"I'll carry him." Naruko said.

"I can make my own way back." Sasuke said.

Naruko sighed, "Sasuke, as much as it would be handy to have that be true, it's not, so I'll carry you." She made Sakura help get Sasuke onto her back, and she adjusted him so it would be more comfortable. "Let's go."

They took off under the cover of the canopy of trees, trying desperately to find their way through the forest to the tower. Once it was in their sight, the team instantly felt better.

They hurried to the end of the story and found a door. They went through and read the inscription, Sakura quickly figuring out they had to open the scrolls.

Opening them up and throwing them on the floor, the team was surprised to see their sensei from the academy standing there.

"Iruka-sensei?" Sakura asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm the one that was assigned to tell you guys that you passed!" He said happily.

"Yes! We're in the finals!" Naruko cheered.

"Well... not necessarily." Iruka said. "There might be too many people who pass, in which case, there will be a preliminary round that everyone will have to fight in, and to be in the finals."

"Whaaaaatt?!" Naruko whined.

"Yep, well, Congrats, and good luck!" Iruka said before disappearing in a poof of smoke.

* * *

The team reported to Anko, who spotted the neck on Sasuke's neck, and told them all to go to the infirmary, passing it off as they all needed to be checked. She then relayed the message to the doctors in the infirmary and told them what to do.

* * *

"This is stupid! I can heal on my own ya know! I don't wanna go in one of those dull and depressing white rooms!" Naruko complained as they walked down the hall to the infirmary.

"Naruko, just deal with it, they're going to make you do it anyways." Sakura said.

"Naruko, just let them treat you." Sasuke said.

"Fine!" She sighed in defeat.

* * *

When they walked in to the infirmary, the doctors immediately confronted them.

"Okay, just have a seat over there." One of them said. "Except you, Sasuke Uchiha, we'll be taking you."

Naruko narrowed her eyes and tightened her grip on her boyfriend. "Why does he need to leave?"

"He requires extra treatment." The doctor said.

"If Sasuke is going somewhere else, I'm going with him." Naruko said stubbornly.

"Ms. Hyuga, you don't get to go with him. You must stay here." The doctor said.

"No! I'm going with Sasuke! I don't trust you doctors." Naruko said, looking him up and down. That was one of the reasons she hated the hospital. While most had started to accept her once she was adopted into the main Hyuga family, merely out of respect, the doctors wouldn't treat her. They would distribute her wrong medication in attempts to kill her or make her sicker and wouldn't do anything like surgeries or put casts on her. They were the stubborn people. That's why she was always treated at the Hyuga manor, her father didn't trust them with her.

"It's fine, she can come. I'll be the one treating Sasuke anyways." A voice said.

They looked up to see their own sensei standing in the doorway.

"Kaka-sensei!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Hah! Stupid doctor! Take that!" Naruko said, blowing a raspberry in his face, then helping Sasuke to the room.

* * *

They entered a dark cave-like hall where Kakashi sat Sasuke in the middle and told Naruko to stand off to the side. He stripped Sasuke down to his boxers, which made both kids blush, but they stopped once Kakashi started to use his own blood to write kanji on Sasuke's body.

"Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing?" Naruko asked.

"I'm sealing the curse mark." He stated.

"Curse mark?" Naruko questioned.

"Yes, it's a curse mark, distributed by Orochimaru. While using it, the owner obtains extreme power, but at a cost. It slowly eats away at the user's body and mind until they can't function anymore." He explained. "Now Sasuke, sealing this won't stop you from ever using it. The seal will stop it from randomly breaking out over your body, but should you choose to use it, the seal will be broken immediately, and I won't be able to recast it."

He slammed his hand down on Sasuke and started the sealing.

Naruko watched in horror as her boyfriend was sealed, she would never get the image out of her head. He was in pure agony, again. And once again, there was nothing she could do to fix it. There seemed to be a force field of intense blue chakra that covered him and seemed to burn into his shoulder, making the mark glow red and the kanji retract into a circle around it. It swirled around before burning even brighter and sealing into a black ring around the curse mark.

Sasuke fell unconscious and Naruko felt tears pricking in her eyes. She dropped to her knees and scurried over to him, checking to make sure he was okay. He was, but she couldn't seemed to get these tears to stop coming forth.

A chuckle sounded through the cave-like hall and that nasty, horrible man who cursed her boyfriend with this mark came out from his hidden position behind a column.

"Well well well, it seems that the Kyuubi brat is in love with my next vessel." He said.

Naruko's eyes widened. "W-What... what are you talking about?"

"Orochimaru! Stop this! You can't tell her this way!" Kakashi shouted.

"What? She doesn't know? Oh how fun!" Orochimaru chuckled.

"Kaka-sensei? What is he talking about? What does he mean by Kyuubi!?" She asked alarmed.

"Stupid child. You contain the Nine Tails, the Kyuubi inside of you! Why else would everybody hate you?!" Orochimaru yelled, taking enjoyment in it.

"No! You're lying! I don't possess the Kyuubi! The Fourth Hokage killed the Kyuubi!" She yelled, standing up.

"What? Why would he do that? When he would have so much fun sealing it inside of his own daughter!" Orochimaru yelled.

"Orochimaru! What do you think you're doing!" Kakashi yelled.

"Daughter?" She asked stupefied, before narrowing her eyes. "He can't be my father! That's no true! You're lying! And even if he was my father, why would he do that!?" But suddenly, everything seemed to make sense, her blue eyes... no one had eyes like that in the village, her particular shade was extremely uncommon, and that's what made her eyes so pretty. But the Fourth... he had the exact same eyes... and his wife... she had red hair right? She remembered liking it in a particular lesson in school because it resembled her very own tomato red locks. She started shaking... he... he wasn't lying.

"Do you finally realize it child?" Orochimaru asked.

"Why... Why didn't anyone tell me?!" She yelled.

"Naruko..." Kakashi said, starting to step towards her.

"NO! I... I don't know who to trust anymore! Why did no one tell me?! WHY!?" She fell to the floor and started crying over Sasuke.

Orochimaru laughed, knocking Kakashi unconscious as he was to distracted worrying about his student. "Well, I suppose I'll just take Sasuke and go."

"STAY AWAY FROM US!" Naruko yelled, chains erupting from her back and crossing through the ground over and over again until it made a shelter around them.

Orochimaru's eyes widened. "Chakra chains?! IMPOSSIBLE!" He yelled.

Naruko screamed, her hands going to her head as she fell apart. Nothing made sense anymore! Her father and mother! They had never told her who her real parents were! They never even explained that this stupid thing stuck in her gut was the reason she was so hated! And why did everyone hate her if the Fourth was supposed to have killed the Kyuubi! Why did her own father even chose her!? Did he hate her?! Did her birth mother and father hate her?! Was that it?! WHY! WHY DID EVERYONE KEEP HER IN THE DARK!?

Her screams became louder and more chains erupted from her back as red started to envelope her and Sasuke, creating a protective cloak around them as small rocks and pebbles lifted into the air around them. Naruko's red hair floated up into the air in her fury and she felt herself being possessed again, but she couldn't fight it off, even though she knew what it was this time. Her emotional distress was too much. She let herself succumb to the comfort of knowing that at least in her mind, she couldn't be lied to.

* * *

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.

Sasuke peeled open his eyes and found himself in what seemed to be a sewer. He grimaced in disgust. Where the hell was he? He looked at the water he was in and saw his own reflection, his Sharingan was fully equipped. What? Was this an effect of the seal or something?

He heard a scream tear through the air and his eyes widened. Naruko! That was most certainly her scream. He stood up and ran through the sewer, trying to find where his girlfriend was located, before he broke into a room.

He took two steps back as he saw two giant blood red eyes staring at him through bars, they matched Naruko's when they were in the forest fighting that man.

He saw Naruko out of the corner of his eyes, grabbing at her hair and screaming while crying.

Sasuke ran over to her and got on his knees next to her, holding her head. "Naruko?! Naruko, what's wrong?" He asked, alarmed.

"Everyone! Everyone's been lying to me! I don't know what to believe anymore!" She yelled.

"Naruko what are you talking about? I haven't been lying to you. Who has been lying to you and about what?" Sasuke asked.

Naruko looked up at him, tears streaming down her face. "I can't tell you."

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because, you'll hate me forever if I tell you." She said.

"I'll never hate you Naruko." He said.

"No, you will if I tell you." She said, looking down again.

"Naruko." Sasuke said, pulling her onto his lap. "Tell me." He said softly.

"We... We're in my mind right now..." She said, before lifting her arm and pointing at the big eyes staring through the bars. "And that... that's the Kyuubi. He's sealed inside of me."


	13. The Hospital

Sasuke sat in silence, trying to take in what he had just heard. Naruko stood up and wiped her tears away.

"I knew it! I knew you would hate me!" She yelled, turning to run away from her shame. She felt a hand grab her wrist and saw Sasuke's was the hand curled around her wrist.

"I don't hate you Naruko. It's just... just a lot to take in." Sasuke said, pulling her down again so that she sat next to him again. "Now... how can the Kyuubi be inside of you when the Yondaime killed it?"

"That's just it, Yondaime didn't kill it. He sealed it inside of me and the Hokage told everyone that it was sealed in me, but apparently, were told to keep it secret from us. Why do you think everyone has always hated me?" Naruko said.

"But why? Why you?" Sasuke asked.

"Well... apparently the Yondaime... he... he was my tou-chan, you know, my birth tou-chan." Naruko said.

"The Yondaime was your tou-chan?!" Sasuke asked, alarmed.

A dark laugh erupted from the cage where the red eyes still looked at the two. "It seems that you finally found it out. So, since I know that a puny little stupid human like you can't figure something as easy as that out, who told you?"

"Yeah, who did tell you?" Sasuke asked.

"Orochimaru." She sad.

"Orochimaru? And you actually believed him?" Sasuke asked.

"Well I wouldn't of, if Kakashi-sensei hadn't reacted the way he did." Naruko stated.

"How did he react?" Sasuke asked.

"He kept yelling 'No!' and 'Stop! Don't tell her!'... I... I just.. I just!" Naruko was trying to get out her words, but she just started sobbing again. She buried her face in her knees and hugged her legs to her chest. "I just d-don't u-u-understand... why did-did no one t-tell me?"

Sasuke rubbed her back and put another arm around her. "Hey, it's okay. It's okay."

"No it isn't... I don't know how to feel anymore, who to trust." Naruko said.

"Okay, here, I"ll help you." Sasuke said. "Do you still trust me?"

"Of course I do! You didn't know about any of this! Plus I... I... I love you, Sasuke." Naruko said.

"I love you too." Sasuke said, kissing her. "What about Neji?"

"He didn't know either! But even if he did, I would still trust and love him! He's my nii-san!" Naruko said. "Do people that knew, but didn't tell me instead."

"Okay, what about your parents?" Sasuke asked.

"Well, of course I do! They raised me! I love them! But-"

"Sensei?"

"Well, I guess, I mean, he's been there with us through thick and thin. But-"

"Sandaime?"

"Are you kidding? He took care of me when no one else did! But-"

"Iruka-sensei?"

"Ugh! Will you let me finish a sentence?!" Naruko asked.

"Naruko, listen to yourself! You still love and trust everyone because we've been there for you. What do you doubt? They love you. That's why they didn't tell you, they knew it would hurt you, just like it is now." Sasuke said.

"Oh..." Naruko said quietly, looking at her hands. Why was she mad about that? Of course her senseis, and the Sandaime, and her parents still cared for her. It was just... she wished she could have known... that she could have visited their graves. That she could... she could know who she was talking to, when she would lay awake in bed every night, talking out loud to her parents, hoping that wherever they were, they would hear her.

"Just because they didn't tell you doesn't mean they don't love you any less." Sasuke said.

Naruko looked up at him and nodded, before turning to look at the kyuubi fearfully. She closed her eyes. She could focus now! She could fight him off! She forced back his power into the cage. It was a struggle, one that was painful, but she knew she had to do it.

* * *

\

Naruko gasped as she opened her eyes and saw what lay in front of her. The dead body of that man... Orochimaru... it lay in front of her. She scurried back and buried her head in her legs. She... she did that! Why?! Sure, he was bad! But still... she... she had killed someone.

She passed out of traumatic shock, and made sure to see her Sasuke was safe before her head hit the floor.

* * *

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Ugh..." Naruko moaned, reaching out to shut up her alarm clock. But as she felt around, but couldn't feel it, she opened her eyes.

NO! WHY!? WHY WAS SHE IN A HOSPITAL?!

"Naruko!" She heard.

Turning, she saw her brother standing at the doorway. She smiled as he smiled back and came in and sat next to her. He ruffled her hair.

"I was wondering when you would wake up imouto. It's been awhile." He said, though she could see his worried. He had bags under his eyes, he always stayed up when he was worried, he couldn't help it.

"Nii-san. You've been worrying." She said, poking him.

"Yeah, like I said, it's been awhile." He said.

"Oh no!" She whined. "Don't tell me I'm out of the Chunin Exams!"

"No, not as long as you're ready to fight in the tournament this Friday. Since one guy dropped out and two other people had a double knock out, you and Sasuke get to go through." Neji said.

"Wait, this Friday? Jut how long has it been?" Naruko asked.

"About a month." Neji said.

"A MONTH?! I WAS OUT FOR A WHOLE MONTH?!" She yelled.

"Yeah, that's why I was so worried. You're normally up and about in a day, but... you haven't woken up. Plus, tou-chan has been training me into the ground." He said. "Kaa-san has worried herself sick over you. The doctors said you would wake up, but that they weren't sure when. Said it was due to traumatic stress. They wouldn't tell us anything other than that, but the doctor that found you and Sasuke said it was a pretty messed up scene and only told the Hokage about it."

"Wait, is Sasuke not awake yet?" Naruko asked, her eyes wide.

"No." Neji said.

Naruko jumped out of bed, running through the hospital to Sasuke's chakra signature. Sasuke! She... she had done this! Traumatic Stress! Obviously caused by everything that went on in her insomniac mind! She had done this to her Sasuke!

"Naruko! Stop!" Neji yelled, running after her.

Unfortunately, not moving for a month puts a serious toll on your movement, so she was a lot slower than usual. She knew her brother would take her back to her room and not allow her to see Sasuke. But she needed to see him!

She grabbed one of the carts the nurse was pushing around the corner and threw it to the ground, scattering glass and medicines everywhere, as well as the cart.

"Hey!" The nurse yelled after her.

Naruko ran and ripped open the door, propelling herself in.

Apparently, she wasn't the only one visiting Sasuke.

Bumping straight into some white-haired guy, she fell to the floor. He and the Sandaime were in the room. She rubbed her sore head and moaned.

The guy stared at her with wide eyes. That red hair! And the blue eyes! That was most definitely Minato and Kushina's child! He hadn't seen her since she was first born, though he could have sworn she had blonde hair at the time.

"OW! Old man get outta the way! Can't you see I'm doing somethin' important ttebayo!" She yelled, getting a tick on her forehead. Even after years Hyuga etiquette were drilled into her, when she got angry, there was no controlling her speech. "Move outta the way!" She yelled, pushing him aside.

She jumped on Sasuke's bed and onto his lap, putting her hands on both sides of his face. He was asleep, and he didn't exactly look like he was going to be roused anytime soon.

"Hey! Stupid little girl! Do you know who I am?!" Jiraiya yelled.

"No! And I don't give a crap!" Naruko yelled, not looking up from her boyfriend.

"Naruko! You're awake!" the Sandaime exclaimed.

"Yeah yeah yeah! It doesn't matter!" Naruko said, fretting over Sasuke.

"Naruko!" Neji yelled, appearing at the door, huffing. "You can't just knock over a nurses cart!"

"Who are you?" Jiraiya asked.

"He's my nii-san." Naruko said absentmindedly.

"Nii-san?"

"Yeah, you know, the one she pushes nurses carts into." Neji said.

"I had to! You were gonna stop me from seeing Sasuke." She said, turning her attention back to her boyfriend.

"Naruko, he's not awake." Neji said. "What 's the point of seeing him? Besides, you still need YOUR rest, and you're in no condition to be running around a hospital!"

"Tch! I know how to wake him up." Naruko said, sitting back at the end of his bed and closing her eyes. 'C'mon furball! Cough up your payment for taking residence in me for the past 12 years!'

She felt power surge forward and consume her, hearing the shocked gasps from the rest of the occupants in the room. She didn't care though, she needed to help Sasuke!

* * *

Naruko moaned as she felt the after effects of using the Kyuubi's chakra.

"Naruko... you're heavy." She heard from below her, and she laughed. She sat up on Sasuke's lap and smiled.

"Ne, how are you?"

"My head feels really sore."

"Yeah, mine too. Apparently we've been out for a month due to 'Traumatic Stress'. I can understand why. But we're still in the Chunin Exams so... yeah, no problem really."

"Oh... well that's... odd." Sasuke said.

"Yeah..." Naruko said, before laughing. "But hey, we're still alive, that's good."

"Naruko, Sasuke." They heard, shocking them both. "We need to talk." The Hokage stated.

"Oh... okay." Naruko said, blushing, getting off the rather inappropriate position her and Sasuke were in for being in front of the leader of their village.

"First off, what led you two into traumatic stress?" He asked.

"Well, I killed Orochimaru." Naruko said.

"No, I'm afraid you didn't." Sandaime said. "His corpse was discovered, but it appears he has the ability to shed bodies, which he did to escape while you were... unconscious."

"Sandaime, you can cut the crap." Naruko bit out. "I know it all know. EVERYTHING. The snake told me, the only useful thing he's ever done. I know about the Kyuubi. And Kushina and Minato."

The Sandaime's eyes widened. "You... know?"

"Yes." Naruko said. "That was my traumatic stress, plus THINKING I killed Orochimaru. You can ask Sasuke about his."

"Sasuke?"

"I assume it had something to do with seeing the Kyuubi as well as the added stress of the brunt of the seal on my curse mark." He said.

"Okay, well, the two of you will be discharged tomorrow. For now, the two of you will be receiving no visitors. Trust me, it will do the best for the both of you." Sandaime said.

"Okay Hokage-sama." Sasuke said.

"Fine." Naruko groaned.

The Sandaime left the room and the two teens stayed in there together.

Naruko blushed. "You know Sasuke... we are alone..."

Sasuke smirked, and the two fell back on the bed.


End file.
